


Harry Potter and the Past Changed

by Strange_Hearts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Control Issues Dumbledore, Control Issues Molly, Excludes Epilogue, Ginny Bashing, Minor Character Deaths, Okay Snape, On the Side of Good Snape, Other, Reapers, Ron Bashing, do over fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:05:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 45,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1290658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strange_Hearts/pseuds/Strange_Hearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>Several months after the final battler is over with, Harry and Hermione are living together in Grimmauld Place, unable to get over what happened during the war, and generally feeling down due to all the deaths.  So when two goddesses visit them and offer them a chance to go back and change the past, they're willing to do so.  However, their is a price to be paid for doing it:  following the orders of the one goddess, no matter what it is, even if it's against their morals.  Are they willing to do as instructed by this goddess in order to change the past to make a better future?</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. June 2nd, 1998

**Author's Note:**

> **_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own any Original Characters seen in this fic. If you want to use any of them, you have to ask._ **

It's been almost a month since the Battle of Hogwarts, and yet, even with that time, Harry Potter still felt an enormous amount of guilt over what had happened to many people, whether they'd been in the battle or not. In the entire year it took them to find the Horcruxes, so many people had died. It didn't help that he still felt the guilt from Sirius's death, which just built up along with the guilt he felt for Cedric's death as well.

The over-heaping of guilt on him had been weighing heavily on his heart and mind, to the point that he hadn't done what everyone expected him to do. Instead of getting back together with Ginny straight away, he barricaded himself at Grimmauld house, closing it down so no one – other than one person – could get in. The only people he interacted within the last month were Kreature, Winky – who'd he'd bonded with.

Hermione, who had spent a little over two years trying to free all house-elves, had gotten a rude awakening when Kreature, of all people, finally told her that she was just as bad as Voldemort in a way for pushing what _she_ wanted on them, instead of bothering to listen to what _they_ wanted themselves. The words had shocked and horrified her to hear, but her surprises weren't over, for he had then showed her a book of what happened to freed elves who didn't want to be free and didn't bond with anyone.

The facts in the book had been horrible to find out, and she was immediately hating herself for her actions during fourth and fifth year, particularly fifth year. She only forgave herself when she discovered that she had never actually freed an elf, not only because she wasn't their master, but because no other elf but Dobby had been willing to clean the tower that year. It was after reading the book and remembering Winky that Hermione told Harry he needed to bond with her, which he did in just the nick of time – she was only alive because Dobby had been taking good care of her, keeping her from drinking herself to death as she had been about to do.

Of course, that didn't mean that she stopped caring about them. When she wasn't working in the Black Library with Harry, she was working on a way to at least make life better for elves. She understood the need to bond, but the abuse some elves went through was not necessary, and she wanted that to stop. Besides, it wasn't as if there was anything other than those two things to work on.

Just like Harry, Hermione hadn't started up a romance with the person people expected her to do after the final battle. Instead, she'd, like Harry, lamented over the lives lost in the past three years, not feeling up to celebrating as others did. It was this fact, and this fact alone, that had Harry willing to have Hermione around him during this time, for he could stand to have someone cheerful about the death of Voldemort around him.

It was that fact, and that fact only, that had caused Hermione to not start up a romance with Ron, as everyone seemed to expect of her. It seemed that, unlike Harry and Hermione, who lamented over the loss of life, and hated the fame they received for helping rid of Voldemort, Ron had only mourned one person during that time. The person he mourned was his older brother Fred – and it was understandable as to why he mourned him, being related. However, what sicked the two about their former – for that was now what he was – friend, was the fact that he'd only mourned his brother for two days before he started reveling in his fame.

While it had shocked them at first, neither of the two were shocked anymore when they saw him on the cover of the _Daily Prophet_ , telling about their adventures to the reporters, especially Marilla Parkorla, Skeeter's replacement gossip rag reporter – for Skeeter had been killed after attempting to write her usual claptrap about the wrong person. Of course, if they had to chose which reporter to deal with, they would have preferred Skeeter, for she would have torn Ron down from his high horse – she might have been a bitch, but she hated leveling anyone up to what she considered to be her level of perfection.

Marilla, however, was the daughter of a Death Eater who'd been killed during the battle of Hogwarts, and had taken an extreme turn towards writing a bad reputation to anyone who wasn't pure-blood, particularly Harry and Hermione. And, even though he'd been considered a blood traitor, Ron was pure-blood, which meant that his reputation was safe from her vicious quill. And, as Harry and Hermione learned, about half of what Ron told Marilla was a lie. If it wasn't for the fact that Marilla Parkorla had been named as a sympathizer to Voldemort, Harry and Hermione would have to deal with the world believing Marilla's words.

As it was, only a few people even got the _Daily Prophet_ any more, trusting the _Quibbler_ more than it. Still, the two kept getting it, if only to keep up with what was going on, for it was the only newspaper that came daily – the _Quibbler_ only came out every two weeks, which was a bit of an improvement to it's previous circulation, but still not good enough when one wanted to know the day to day reports – Marilla's interviews aside, the _Prophet_ did have some truer reports from other, more trustworthy reporters.

And it was that fact, and that fact only, that had Harry still getting the _Prophet_ every morning.

After paying the owl, Harry looked through it, ignoring yet another Ron interview – though, he was slightly surprised to see, there was also an interview from Neville Longbottom, who pretty much called Ron out as being the liar that he was. For the first time since the war, Harry found himself entertained by a _Prophet_ article, which not only brought Ron into question for all of 'his' heroic deeds, but also brought into question the neutrality of Marilla for trying to pass off a false interview as truth. Once he finished reading the article, he headed to the library, where he knew that he'd find Hermione. He brought the _Prophet_ with him, knowing that Neville's interview would brighten her day just as much as it brightened his.

"Morning," he stated quietly as he entered the room, nodding towards her. She nodded back. He was slightly reminded of their time in the tent, only with several differences. For one, Hermione was not nursing a broken heart of Ron – in fact, she often questioned why she had thought she had one to begin with, especially considering that she couldn't stand the way Ron was acting now, which was just a slightly more extreme version of how he'd acted in the last seven years to begin with. For another, Harry was no longer looking at the Marauder's Map every chance he got, not just because he was no longer fully attracted to Ginny,but for the fact that he had realized that, in his ruminations of the memories of doing so, he realized that he had completely ignored the fact that Ginny had visited eight different broom closets with ten different males Since there was no reason to visit a broom closet with any male other than romantic relations, Harry couldn't help but wonder why he had ignored the fact that she had basically acted like a whore.

More than that, though, was the fact that the two were actually talking to each other while doing the task they'd set up for themselves. Instead of days passing I silence with the slightest inquiry to each other, the days now passed with conversation, mostly about the books they'd find. Together, they were helping each other heal.

Like the previous days, Harry grabbed his three bags that were charmed to be extended on the inside without having any weight to them. It had been decided, when Hermione had entered the room and discovered all of the books, most of them being dark, and decided that they needed to go through them all. They had immediately gotten rid of any book with a spell on it, destroying them with the help of Kreature. Now, though, they were going through the books, deciding what to do with each book.

They had three options of what they could do. The first was that they could keep the book for themselves, as Harry decided to share them with Hermione, who would really be the one to use them the most. The second was that they could donate the book to the Hogwarts library. And, finally, the third was to destroy the books, because they were too dark to keep and too dark to give away.

Because of the size of the library, and the fact that it was certainly easier for them to do so, they each carried three bags that had expendable charms on the inside, so that they didn't have to run back and forth between them as they worked. Luckily, as Harry looked on, he discovered that they were getting closer to finishing up. He could hardy wait until that came, slightly tired of looking at the books as he was. His friendship with Ron had certainly left it's mark on him, for he no longer liked books as he used to.

They were working in silence for two hours when Hermione gasped. Harry, who had gotten distracted by a book that told him how he could trace his ancestry – which he found to be very useful, and couldn't wait to do an indepth view through it, and try out some of the spells, if possible – looked up towards her, trying to see what it was that caused her to gasp. The first thing he noticed was that there were no more books on the shelves, something that had him extremely thankful for. The second was that Hermione held a book in her hand that was actually glowing a reddish-white color.

"Oh no," Harry muttered, afraid for his friend. "I thought we got rid of all the books that could harm us."

He put the ancestry book into his keep bag, walking carefully over to Hermione. The only change to the book was that it glowed a brighter color, though it didn't see to do anything other than that. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he looked at he cover of the book, seeing nothing that would give him a hint of what it was.

"Turn it to the side," he said, stupidly reaching out his own hand to do so. This turned out to be somewhat of a mistake, for the second his fingertips connected with the book, the reddish light flashed it's brightest, becoming pure white before flashing through millions of other colors. It went from green, yellow, orange, red, blue, purple, pink... Over and over, these colors flashed until they were in a dense gray.

The first thing Harry noticed, apart from their surroundings, was the fact that they were naked save for the bags they had with them. His three covered the area between his legs, while the four she had with her – for she also kept the bag used during the hunt with her at all times, as it still held everything needed if they decided to go somewhere – did the same thing. Her hair covered her chest, though just barely. Harry looked away, feeling shameful, not even one bit aroused. Hermione was practically his sister. He, unlike some other males, had no desire to see her naked like she was.

He looked around him again, purposely keeping himself from looking towards her as he tried to figure out what this place seemed familiar. He was aware of when she realized that they were naked, her squeak and back turned telling him this little fact. He noticed that there was nothing covering her bare bottom from him and he became even more determined not to look, and study where they were.

It took him a few more minutes to realize why the place seemed familiar to him. It was a lot like the place where he'd seen Dumbledore in the vision he had, when he allowed Tom to shoot the Killing Curse at him. He could tell that it wasn't exactly the same place, but it did appear a lot like it. And, if he was right...

_I wish I had some clothes_ he thought, a pile of clothing appearing immediately. He looked over to Hermione.

"Hermione, wish for some clothes," he told her. She made a sound, and he saw that, just like him, she had turned from him, not wanting to see his body just as he hadn't wanted to see hers. However, having heard him, she did as he had said, and she dressed into the clothes that had appeared. Once dressed, she turned to Harry.

"Where are we?" she asked. He shrugged, looking around. While it reminded him of the place he'd gone after the Killing Curse had attempted to kill him, he could already tell that it wasn't the exact place. For one, it didn't look like King's Cross to him, like it had before. And, secondly, he really didn't believe that him and Hermione were dead.

He was just about to tell Hermione what this place reminded him of, though. However, before he could say anything to her, a loud yell of 'they're here' echoed around them. They looked around, finally spotting someone – or, rather, two someones. The ones they spot were both women, very beautiful women, though different as night and day.

One of them was very tall, with a bit of heaviness to her around her chest area. She had olive toned skin, with hazel eyes, and dark red hair pulled back from her face in a fancy bun up do. She was wearing a rather pretty dress, long and red with lace detailing over a shiny looking slip, and done up in a halter style , the lace being what went up and around her neck. She looked as if she was going to some formal party. She seemed...warm, welcoming and almost glad to see them

Her companion, in comparison, was almost like a winter storm. She was smaller in statue, with the palest skin Harry had ever seen on anyone, though it wasn't unattractively pale. Her hair was blue-black, so silky looking that he could see it from where he was, and she had the bluest eyes ever. Everything she wore was black, from the tight over bust corset and leather pants to the heeled boots. She was looking at them in boredom, as if she didn't care one wit that there were there, and that she wished to be anywhere but.

"We've been waiting for you two," said the nicer looking one, her voice smooth and kind sounding. She was immediately recognized as the one who had shouted from before.

"About fucking time they came," the other one muttered, just loud enough for them to hear. Just as her appearance was, her voice was very different from the one. It was cold, like ice, and put both Harry and Hermione on guard, for the last person who has spoke like that ha been a psychopath who had wanted to kill them and almost everyone else, Muggle and wizard alike. The nicer one noticed their reactions.

"Oh, don't worry about her," she said. "She's always like that."

"I'm sorry, but, who are you?" Harry asked, still on guard, never letting his eyes leave the bored looking one. "And where are we?"

The two women looked at each other, as if just realizing that they hadn't introduced themselves yet, nor given Harry or Hermione any clue as to where they were, or why they were even there.

"You first," muttered the cold one, hanging back as the nicer one walked closer to the two. Chairs then appeared, comfortable ones, and the one who had walked over to them motioned for them to sit, taking a seat herself. The bored looking one did the same, her seat just slightly back from the other one. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes, and sat down, though their bodies were rather tense.

"Okay, first off, where you are is what's known as an in-between world," the nicer one said. "There are quite a few of them. This particular one is the one between your world, and my particular world, which is actually just a small part of another world. As for who we are, I am Helena, the Goddess of Love."

"But that –" Hermione started to say, only to be cut off by Helena.

" '– can't be possible'?" Helena said, finishing what Hermione was about to say. "Trust me, I know what my true name is. It's the people in your world, such as the bards and story tellers who always get my name wrong. It's that way for all gods and goddesses. They tend to go by what sounds the best for their stories and all. Not to say that I've never used those names before. When you live long like we do, you tend to gain a use for the names they call you. So long as I don't use the name somewhere that people call me that, I'm fine.

"As for my partner here, she's Trystelianna, or Tryst as most of us call her. I'll let her tell you who she is exactly."

She turned expectantly to Tryst, who rolled her eyes.

"I'm not saying it right now," she said. "With how tense our guests are, I have no doubt that they'll become even tenser once they know, and I don't want to scare them until after your done."

Helena apparently didn't like that answer, for Harry noticed her give Tryst a look that seemed to say 'tell them now, or I will." Tryst sighed, rolling her eyes at Helena.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to tell them, especially with how they are?" she asked. Helena nodded her head. "Fine. I'm the Goddess of Death, or, rather, Angel of Death. Either title is right for me. As for why I'm here, you'll find out the answer to that after Helena explains why she's here. You will also find out why you're here as well."

The look she gave Helena as she said that made it clear that she wouldn't be budging on that little matter, no matter what she did. Helena sighed. Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione both exchanged slightly fearful glances, gulping. What could be so important that both Goddesses of Love and Death wanted to speak with them for? While they weren't as nervous with dealing with the Goddess of Love, the Goddess of Death, on the other hand, was making them extremely nervous. They wondered if one or both of them had been meant to die, and she was planning on fulfilling that action. Or perhaps they were being punished for the deaths of so many others. Or...

They stopped there as they realized that none of their thoughts accounted for Helena being there, and their confusion began anew.

Helena, seeing the look Tryst gave her, just sighed, then turned to the two who were still lost in their thoughts.

"Don't mind her," she stated, breaking them out of their thoughts and causing Tryst to scowl at her. "She just loves to scare people."

"Now," Helena stated, waving her hand, causing several comfy chairs and a table complete with a tea set on it to appear. There were also the usual trappings for a formal tea party, such as small cakes and thinly cut sandwiches. Helena motioned for the two to take a seat, which they did, rather hesitantly. "Don't be afraid, neither of us have any plans of killing you two, and eating this food won't do anything to you. I give you my word, on my own honor, that I'm not lying to you."

They nodded and, still hesitantly, each took a cup of the tea Helena poured out, as well as a sandwich – or, in Harry's case, one of the little cakes. A few moments went by as they ate their treats, sipping the tea politely while doing so. After they had their fill, and were mostly drinking tea just to be polite, Helena began speaking once again.

"Now, I'm sure that you're probably wondering what I'm doing here? I mean, you probably come up with several ideas on why Tryst is here, but myself?" she stated. "After all, any other god or goddess would probably be better than me, so why me? Why the goddess of love?"

Hermione and Harry both nodded. Now that she had brought it up, they couldn't deny that they were wondering about it. After all, while their love lives weren't going so great at the moment, there was no doubt that Harry and Ginny would be picking right back up where they'd left off, once Ginny was done mourning for Fred. Of course, Hermione knew that she could probably use some help, since there was no way she and Ron would be picking up on their relationship at all – Ron's selfish actions made sure of that, while the crush she had on him had faded with the one kiss they'd shared, which was far from being even close to mind blowing, which was what she had been expecting. Everything with him, so far, had pointed to them being anything but compatible.

"I'll tell you why I'm here: to right the wrongs in your love lives, especially for you, Harry, as you, Hermione, have already figured out that you are not meant to be with Ron," Helena said, leaning back slightly in her chair to get more comfortable. Harry couldn't help but be confused about what was wrong with his love life. Though Ginny had acted like a whore, Harry couldn't just drop her completely, as they weren't together at the time, and she was allowed to be with anyone she wanted during that point. And he had made a promise that he would get back with her, once Voldemort was gone. Just because it hadn't happened yet didn't mean that it never would.

"Now, I know that I've probably more than confused you right now – I'm sorry about that," Helena continued, looking between the two of them, "but I wouldn't be here telling you all this if it wasn't important. And it is, very important.

"The first thing you should know, Harry, that the reason why I say this is because you were dosed a subtle but rather strong love potion that was administered to you in your fifth year. It started out in small doses, but your magic is strong, strong enough to burn completely through the potion before it could take effect at all. After you first kissed Miss Chang and it became known that you had, a larger dose of this potion was given to you, which, while also burned away by your magic, still did cause some effect towards you.

"Then, realizing this, the person dosing you turned to another potion, one that was to take any bit of love one felt for them, however dim, and expand it. Your magic didn't burn though this potion like the previous one, but, as Miss Genevra Weasley – " and here, Helena had to hold up a hand to stop the two from interrupting, for they had immediately began to sputter out a denial that Ginny would ever do something like that. Helena waited a few moments before they finally stopped, then began talking again.

"Now, as I was saying, as Miss Genevra Weasley discovered, the only love you held for her was family love – you thought of her as a sister, Harry, much like you do Miss Granger here. That, of course, didn't have the best reaction for her, and she switched back to the previous potion, while also reading up on it. When she read about the part on how a powerful witch or wizard couldn't be effected by normal doses of certain potions because their magic would detect and rid of it, she realized what her problem was.

"After doing that, but also knowing what she did now, Ginny changed her game plan a bit. While she still continued to dosed you with the love potion, bringing it to an amount that would actually be extremely dangerous if your magic wasn't burning most of it all, she also added three other potions to it, especially after learning that your magic wouldn't let it effect you in any dose after a while – basically, you'd build an immunity to it, which would ruin her plans as you wouldn't be able to feel the love for her that she wanted.

"And so, the other three were added in addition to the first one. The first to be added was specific jealousy potion, one that would cause you to be crazy jealous of anyone that was able to do whatever she specified it for – as she specified that you would be jealous of any male she was with and you caught holding hands, hanging out, or kissing, among other things, it was easy for it to work on you.

"Once you were specifically jealous of her boyfriend at the time, she added the potion that found any bit of love in you and expanded it to your group of potions already being given to you. This time, though, the result she wanted was what she got, as your exposure with the jealousy potion had you confused, and your mind automatically began believing that the reason for the jealousy was because you felt something for her, which, with the love potion itself, caused your heart to believe it as well. The Love Expanding Potion, as it's called, took that feeling and did as it was meant to, expanded it until you believed you truly were in love with her. By the time this happened, well, she could take you off of most of the potions – she made sure to keep you on the Love Expanding Potion, though, so that the feeling wouldn't fade."

"That's why she suddenly started dating Dean Thomas, isn't it?" Harry said. "He was in our house, close enough that the relationship would be kind of in our face with it."

"Exactly," Helena stated. "You didn't blink an eye with the others, and, when she started choosing her next boyfriend, she knew that she'd need him to be somewhat close to you. It's quite disgusting how she used him, but then, that didn't matter one bit to her, just so long as she got what she wanted, which was you.

"As for the final potion, well, that one had nothing to do with love and being keyed to her. Instead, it was keyed to Hermione here, and meant to keep any feelings you had for her from growing. If you had any such feeling of love, it would turn to disgust. It was also supposed to make you feel less like spending time with her – unfortunately for Ginny, your magic burned most of that potion off as well, so the latter never really happened.

"As for you, Hermione, you too were given several potions during that time as well. It's why you felt a need to be around the Weasley family so much over your own family, to the point of canceling the skiing trip with your parents. I should mention that Ginny also did her best to seem more normal around you and speak to you more, as it would hopefully make it appear more natural when you started falling for her – truthfully, the only reason why you didn't think there was a love potion on you was because of the fact that she had done that, and quite a bit of time had gone by the time you suddenly began becoming jealous and wanted her.

"And, in case your wondering, the reason why you were able to 'smell' her in the cauldron that was full of Amortentia is because, by that time, the potions had definitely begun to work on you. Due to the fact that that they were all keyed to her in a way, Amortentia scents would mimic something of hers on you because of that fact. The only good thing was that she didn't use that to try and get you, as it's known to be the most powerful love potion for a reason – it only needs one dose keyed to someone for it to be able to last for a year, and no one's magic can really burn it off from themselves.

"Of course, if you're not given a dose keyed to someone, it can actually act as an antidote to many love potions, including every single one you were on. It would have helped you feel clear minded, as well as show you who you were actually meant to be with, but since no one will actually let that fact be known, it's not surprising that you wouldn't have checked to do it.

"And now, it's time for you, Hermione. I'm pretty sure you can already figure out what's happened towards yourself," Helena said, turning towards her.

"Ginny dose me with the same things, only keyed towards Ron," Hermione said. "And I most likely was keyed towards Harry for the only non-love or -jealousy potion, the way he was for me."

"Correct," Helena stated. "It was slightly worse for you, though. See, like with Harry, she learned that your magic had burned off the first love potion she gave you geared towards her brother. However, she also learned that you are are at least ten times more powerful than Harry, meaning that your doses had to be even higher, and more concentrated. Do you remember that lotion she gave you? She poured every bit of the potion she planned on giving you in it, allowing it to be absorbed through your skin instead of drunken, which actually increased how much your body took of it.

"She also, however, decided to do the jealousy potion keyed to her brother as well, and it was here that she went wrong about it. The potion doses were too high for you. She assumed that, because of your power, it would need to be the same amount, and, while your magic did burn off a bit of it, it was too much since you were still being dosed with the other potion, which your magic thought of as the bigger threat.

"And you can't deny that she didn't do this to you, either, as your sixth year at the school can attest to," Helena said, pausing to take a sip of tea. She looked back up at Hermione. "Tell me, why, after five years of telling Harry that he needed to do better in all of his classes, would you get so mad and jealous of him when he beings to do better at potions, even if it was better than you were doing? And you can't say it was because he wasn't doing it by the book, because if you had bothered looking at the book version of potions you did in the previous years, you would have noticed that some of the potions in the book matched the ingredients that Professor Snape had you brew the years before, a fact that would have brought you to figuring out that he was the half-blood prince sooner than it actually did."

Hermione looked down, feeling ashamed. It was the truth, after all – before sixth year had let out, she had found herself in the Room of Lost Things, and had gone looking for the book for some reason. She wasn't sure why; she had felt as though it was calling to her, though. Once she had found it and taken it, she had mostly forgotten it until the day she'd began looking for the theory on Memory charms. She had spent only five minutes reading one of the first potions in the book – one they'd done first year, in fact – when she noticed there was something familiar with the instructions. When she looked at her copy of the book, she was surprised to realize that the instructions were different than how they'd done the potion back in first year. A quick look through the rest of it showed her the fact that she had been a completely and total idiot to Harry.

"It wasn't just the book, though," Harry suddenly said, looking over to her. "You were rather inconsistent about everything that year. I mean, you even confounded MacLaggen, despite the fact that it was a form of cheating. And it didn't even bother you to do it either. And yet, simply using the book that simply had some notes that made the potions I did better did? I should have realized then that something was wrong, especially with the way you were acting with me. You'd never acted that way before, and yet you were suddenly doing so. That was such a big clue that I don't know how I missed it."

"I'll tell you how: distraction," Helena said. "Ginny wasn't working alone in all of this. While she had done the potion planning and making, her brother Ronald Weasley was helping make sure the two of you got dosed as directed and didn't pay attention to each other enough to realize that something was wrong. And he did it brilliantly, too, with minimal effort. His getting with Lavender Brown was for the same reason that Ginny got with Dean. You both were so tied up with being jealous of the two that neither of you thought it was strange about the fact that the other was jealous."

"But why? Why would Ron and Ginny do it?" Harry asked.

"For a number of reasons. Were you aware of the fact that your first meeting with Ron was a set up?" Helena asked him. He shook his head, confused. "What do you remember about your first meeting with the Weasleys?"

Harry thought for a moment. "I was beginning to panic after my aunt and uncle had just left me there. I couldn't find the platform, and had been wondering if I should get my wand out and start tapping the barrier between platforms nine and ten. However, before I did that, I overheard Mrs. Weasley speaking, and something she said caught my interest, so I continued to listen to them before finally asking her about the platform," he said.

"What was it that caught your attention?" Hermione asked him.

"Well, the first thing was that she mentioned that the station was packed with Muggles, in a rather loud voice, before she started asking her kids what the platform number was," Harry said. Hermione gasped. "What?" he asked. Hermione turned to Helena.

"It was a set up, wasn't it?" she asked. Helena nodded her head, while Harry looked confused. Seeing his look, Hermione sighed.

"Harry, why would Molly be talking about Muggles in a loud voice, when there was a chance that they'd hear her? Sure, she'll speak about them when in an area populated by them, but she always does it quietly. Yet, the first you met her, she doesn't do that? That suggests that she did it in hopes that a certain person, you, were listening. They must've somehow known that you would be there on the Muggle side of the station. Plus, she's gone to the platform almost four times every school year, for everyone of her children before Ron started, and she went there when she was in school, and the platform has always been nine and three-quarters. Yet, the one time you're there, she suddenly forgets it, just that once, while remembering it every year afterward? No, that suggests a set up. Someone wanted you to know the Weasleys before you got onto the train," Hermione said. "I'm just not sure of who did it."

"Exactly," Helena chimed in, wanting to go back to her explanations of everything. "While it wasn't actually done in hopes of you actually becoming friends with them – they didn't know who you were, just that they'd been asked to just help you, it was still a set up. And, in truth, that was just the first problem that has pretty much ruined your love lives – well, yours, Hermione, seeing how the one Harry is supposed to be with wasn't quite at school yet. See, Hagrid was supposed to inform you of where the platform was, but he forgot to when he realized just how late it had gotten – though, as you didn't open your ticket just then, you are partially at fault as well.

"Anyway, after reporting to Dumbledore, in which he then remembered that he hadn't told you how to get onto the platform, Dumbledore asked Molly to be on the lookout for you, simply telling her to watch out for a young, green-eyed boy who'd have a snowy owl – for Hagrid had mentioned getting that for you – and would most likely look lost. He hadn't even planned on doing it originally, having another idea in mind for getting you to meet the Weasleys – you were right about someone wanting them to meet, Hermione, but just mistaken about what the first meeting actually was. But when he found out that Hagrid hadn't told you the information you really needed, he changed his plans, which was something he actually believe was for the best after seeing you at upon your arrival at Hogwarts.

"If Hagrid had remembered what he was to do, you would have met and had help from Hermione's soul mate instead of the twins, and then would have met Hermione herself not very long afterward, as she had actually arrived two minutes after you did – if your uncle hadn't taken so long in 'helping' you, you could have easily gone through the barrier together. Of course, you could have still gotten help from Hermione's soul mate, but that was a very slim chance, as the twins had noticed you watching the family before hand, and had decided to play a prank on you. It was only your scar that distracted them from that endeavor. Still, they ended up helping you, and you didn't meet Hermione's soul mate or Hermione as you were supposed to. As it was, because the twins were the ones who'd helped you, and were too busy staring at you, Hermione just passed by you, and didn't even get to glimpse her soul mate, because he hadn't noticed that she needed help with her trunk – instead, Neville actually helped her when she found a place to sit, which was how they came to know each other.

"However, even with this change, I still did my best to find a way to get you to meet your soul mate, Hermione. I also tried to do my best to get you two to become friends sooner rather than when you actually did. If you had become friends sooner, it would have saved you two a lot of trouble, not just in that department, but in some of the events that you went through. You two were kindred spirits, both having no idea how to really react around others, and not used to having friends. At the very least, it would have definitely helped both of you, especially you, Hermione."

Hermione, knowing what it was that she was talking about, suddenly looked down. She never told anyone about her thoughts and feelings before she'd met Harry. Harry, looking confused, looked at her, wondering what was going on. What did Helena mean, it would have definitely helped Hermione? What, exactly, was it that his friendship would have impacted upon Hermione's life so much?

"Hermione?" he said questioning, his tone indicating that he really wished to know what it was that Helena was talking about. Hermione sighed, knowing that she needed to tell him, and knowing that he wouldn't take it well – it would hurt him a bit to hear it. Still, she got the sense that Helena would probably tell him herself, and Harry deserved to hear it from her, instead.

"What she means is that, before going to Hogwarts, I was in the same boat as you. I had no friends, people teased me, and I was the victim of many bullies. The difference was that I didn't have a cousin making my life hell. Instead, the fact that I loved to read was the reason for it. What your cousin and his friends did to you, was how the other kids treated me. It wasn't unusual to me fore someone to throw stones at me, or take my books and rip them up or throw them into the mud. They especially loved it when I ended up in tears, did everything they could to get that end result. I was even beat up by a group for no reason other than 'I was simply there'. I ended up in the hospital because of that attack, and the ones who'd done it got away with it, because I couldn't identify them all, and the ones that I was able to do so had 'alibis'.

"It was only my accidental magic, which was extreme, even beyond what yours had been , that the attack didn't happen again. But, well, the fact that I could do something like that made me even more of a freak to others, and it took the teasing to a whole new level, though they never touched me again – I don't know what I did, but they were afraid, I knew that for a fact. Because of all this, I did my everything I could to disappear into a book, and I had so much time on my hands that I began to get into doing my homework a lot, and developed a semi-photographic mind because of it.

"And then...My Hogwarts letter came, and I was so excited. Finally, I had something telling me that what I'd done didn't make me a freak, but a witch, and that there were others like me. I bought all of the school books they said to buy, but I wanted to know about this new world, so I also bought several others for background reading, and I memorized them so that I would be able to fit in better. However, because of I'd been bullied so much, I wasn't quite sure how to make friends, and none of the books I bought could actually help me in that endeavor. I also learned that, magical or not, people were the same no matter what. They'd be resentful if you were better than them in certain circumstances, and, in this world, with the fact that blood was all that mattered was also added onto this as well, and, well, blood isn't something which is easily changed.

"I still tried to make friends, though. I went about it the wrong way, but I did try. I know that you probably thought I was an idiot with how I kept trying to be your friend, especially whenever I tried to keep you from breaking the rules. I did that because my parents and the teachers at my primary school were the ones I looked up to due to the fact that they'd always protect me, and so I got a healthy respect for rules from them.

"However, it finally became too much, especially when Ronald spurned my attempts to help him and then mentioned, right when I was behind you guys, that no one could stand me. When everyone laughed at that, including you, it felt as though something broke inside of me. I mean, while I suspected that you didn't actually consider me as a friend, I thought that, at the very least, you tolerated me. To then have the fact that you didn't even do that thrown in my face, all because I had tried to help me, and then just did what he challenged me to do...

"I couldn't take it anymore. The hurt I'd felt at that, along with how my life had been before Hogwarts, had me loosing control of my emotions, which I had done everything I could in the past to control after the attack on me so that I didn't give the bullies any satisfaction of knowing they'd gotten to me. As you know, I spent the rest of the day in the bathroom, crying my eyes out and ignoring the few who tried to get me out. What you don't know is that part of the reason why they'd failed was because when I asked if they liked me at all, they all stopped speaking, and then left. That hurt just as much as well, and, well, I eventually decided, as I calmed down, that I'd obviously made a mistake in coming to Hogwarts. I was planning on leaving to tell Professor McGonagall this when I saw the troll. I was so startled by the sight that I couldn't help the scream that bubbled from my throat."

Hermione then laughed humorlessly at that moment. "I was frightened of it, but, did you know that, despite that, there was a part of me that was hoping that it would succeed in killing me?"

Harry looked horrified by the utterance of that confession. He felt sick and disgusted with himself as well. Here he was, listening to someone whom he had valued as both a friend and considered to be his sister confess how it had been those first three months of school. What made it worse for him was the fact that she'd been in the same cast as he'd been before Hogwarts – friendless and alone – and, instead of attempting to realize this fact, or even accept her strange attempts at becoming friends with her, he had just considered her to be a busybody, and wished she'd just leave him alone and stop butting into his business.

Guilt racked through him as he recalled the fact that he had continued to ignore her even when he'd noticed that she never really had anyone around her actually talking to her, and that she was more often than not alone in the common room. He hadn't even bothered to assume that she didn't have any friends, sure that, just because he never saw then, she did have friends, a fact that he felt justified in making due to the fact that she didn't seem to fit in with the other Gryffindors. He had just assumed that they were in another house.

Knowing that she was hoping to die when the troll had come was a blow to his heart; he could have lost someone very special to his heart had he not gone to find her after the troll roaming the castle was announced. How would he had lived if he hadn't gone after the troll as he had? How would he feel if he'd learned of her death, aware of the fact that Ron would have been partially at fault for it because his callous words had been the reason why she was in the bathroom to begin with? The reminder of the fact that he'd laughed when Ron had said what he'd said sent even more guilt running through him. How could he have sunk so low as to do something that was a move worthy of Dudley?

And how was it that he had actually missed that she was still friendless? Even if he could justify the fact in the common room, outside, he should have noticed it when outside of the common room, when most of the school was pretty much together all the time. There, he truly couldn't assume that she did have friends, because anyone who looked would realize she didn't. Yet, he didn't look. _Why_ didn't he look?

It didn't take him long to figure out the answer to that question.

Ron. Ron Weasley was why he had never noticed this. He had been so happy to finally have a friend that he had ignored the fact that Ron tended to do everything possible to make sure that Harry's attention was always on him. Whenever Harry had seemed to let his attention drift from Ron, Ron had always called it back to him. Harry then remembered how Ron hadn't cared for the fact that Hermione could have ended up hurt back in first year. It had only been Harry's insistence that they go warn her, an insistence that consisted of Harry pulling Ron with him, that he'd even bothered to be there to help.

At that moment, he could see a part of what it was that had Helena so disliking of Ron.

Harry opened his mouth, about to apologize to Hermione – for everything he'd done before they'd become friends – when she started to speak once again.

"And then, of course, you came to the rescue, like a knight in shining white armor, and the fact that you had done so, that you seemed to actually care what happened to me, warmed my heart right up. I lost all thoughts of wishing it would kill me, and I thought you were so brave...

"When it was knocked out and the teachers came in, I was slightly panicked. I didn't want to loose you as a friend so quickly by letting them know that you had come after me for what, at the time, seemed like no reason at all, as I didn't know about he troll when you came after me, which was a perfectly good reason that I didn't think of at the time due to my panicking. So I lied to them, telling them that I'd gone after the troll, and that you'd noticed and followed, saving me because I was being arrogant.

"Did you know that, after you did that, I owed you a life debt. And, before you even thing to try and correct me, it was to you, not Ronald, despite what he may have thought. You were the one who had wanted to come after me, not Ron. You were the one who had been in the most danger, not Ron. Most importantly, though, was the fact that it was Ron who had, while unintentionally as he couldn't have known about the troll, been the reason why I had been in danger in the first place, not you. The fact that, though unintentionally, his actions had put me in danger and caused the need for a rescue canceled out any chance of him having a debt from me. And it's not the only debt I have to you, either. I have two life debts to you, one for that, and the other for third year."

Harry was slightly amazed at the fact that she knew that, and was actually surprised to discover this. Then, he managed to pick up the bit about Ronald.

"What do you mean, despite what Ron may have thought?" Harry asked her. She scowled as she recalled the memory.

"About a week after that happened, while you were at Quidditch practice, Ron came up to me and demanded that I let him copy my essay and write a new one. When I refused, he got all mad at me, said I had to, that I owed him a life debt, and that he'd be making use of it by having me do his homework. He said it in such an official voice, like, "I, Ronald Weasley, do hear by call upon the life debt owed to me by Hermione Granger. I demanded that it be paid by her doing all my homework for so long as we're in school here at Hogwarts. So mote it be.' Then, he told me to give my essay to him so that he could copy it. I curse him, told him to go to hell, and packed up, much to his surprise. I then looked for information about life debts, read it, and then, when he demanded that I do it again because of the life debt I 'owed' to him, I informed him that I didn't, because it was due to him that I'd been in danger, and that cancels out any possibility of a life debt being owed.

"He was so pissed after that, but then you came, and he had to swallow his anger. Of course, that's when he started to do all of his arguments with me about, well, everything he said, which was even worse than before we became friends. It's also when he started to do everything to drive a wedge between us – ever notice that he tended not to want to play with me if you were available and tended to talk about things that grabbed your attention, but I didn't care much about? That was because he was trying to exclude me," she said.

Harry frowned at that, having not noticed it. Of course, he did remember how happy Ron had seemed when he'd agreed to exclude Hermione after both the broomstick episode and the how down he'd been when they'd made up. He had quickly hidden it, but Harry did remember him having been like that. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about that fact.

"Yes well, you guys still became friends after the troll incident, so I didn't really feel all that worried anymore. You two were finally friends, so I could rest on that end," Helena said, taking back the show. "In the meantime, though, I started working on trying to get you to meet your soul mate, Hermione. However, each time, someone kept interrupting, mostly Ron who, after he stopped demanding to copy your work, started asking you to at least proofread it, which you did a little too well at first, though you eventually tone it down a you realized that you were overdoing it. However, because Ron kept interrupting any of my plans, I decided to wait until next year to do it. I figured, considering that I had somewhat of an idea of what was going to happen, I could make it happen without having to worry about Ron interrupting."

Helena shook her head.

"Unfortunately, something changed. Neither of you met your soul mates, as you were supposed to, and, at first, I didn't understand why it hadn't worked. Of course, as I wasn't paying attention like I should, I didn't realized what went wrong until I looked it over much later. I did take into account Dobby, as well as the way the Weasley's were going to go through, but, originally, you were to have gone before Mr. Weasley, as you wouldn't have been in such a hurry and only Ron would have been left on the platform, as he would have been distracted by something, and Dobby wouldn't have been able to close the gate in time before you'd gone through. What I didn't take into account was the fact that Malfoy had changed his mind about who he gave the diary to. Originally, he planned on giving it the first student in first year he saw, who would have been Luna Lovegood, in truth.

"However, when he saw the Weasleys arrive, he changed his mind, his rivalry with the man causing him to want to do something that would ruin him. His daughter being caught doing something to Muggleborns would have been the prefect cause for him to have the protection act that Arthur was trying to get past to be shut down, in his mind, at least. Truthfully, if she had been caught, the act itself would have actually been pushed through with more fevor than it originally was, and it would have indeed become a law, one that Malfoy would have been unable to avoid going to jail because of the fact that those who would have been in charge of dealing the those who broke that law would have been people who couldn't be bribed to ignore his activities, and would have forced-fed truth potion down his throat if they suspected him to be lying, which those in charge would have suspected. So, if it had gone the way he wanted, it would have screwed him up so badly.

"Anyway, as I'm sure you can figure out, I was unable to push you into going to your soul mates. And mostly because of the fact that Ginevra Weasley happened to get the diary. She practically ruined everything. And you want to know, something, Hermione? You would have never been petrified if things had gone the way they were supposed to go. In truth, if things had gone the way they were supposed to go, then you would have been able to tell Harry what the monster was, figured out where the chamber was, and who was controlling the Basilisk before school almost ended.

"However, because Ginevra considered you to be a threat to her plans of securing Harry's affections, you were the one petrified. She had figured out who it was that had been petrifying everyone, and, while horrified, seeing how close you two were just set something off in her. She had no guilt in suggesting that you'd be the one petrified next, even demanded it, in fact. She figured that it was unlikely that anyone would even think that it might not actually be an accident, and had actually hoped for more than a petrification. Of course, when she realized what Tom was actually doing, and upon you rescuing her – and, therefore, knowing that you knew about Tom – she saw a perfect way out of being blamed for Hermione's petrification."

Hermione and Harry looked disgusted over hearing that, as well as pissed at the fact that they'd had done just as Ginevra thought they would do, and not even think about the fact that it may not have been all Tom. Harry realized that he hadn't thought about it because Tom had taken the credit of attacking Hermione, but then, thinking about it again, he remembered how Tom had been more interested in finding out the answers to his questions he wanted to know, over bragging about the attacks, save for brief mentions of them.

Hermione, however, was wondering how she hadn't noticed the girl's dislike of her, and was feeling a bit sad to know that her one female friend hadn't actually been much of a friend. She wondered if Ginevra actually had been that good at hiding her true nature from everyone, then wondered how the little bitch hadn't been sorted into Slytherin, where she obviously belonged.

Helena, knowing what Hermione was thinking, said," You didn't notice it because you weren't around her enough. You were also trying to emulate her mother a bit too much to actually pay much attention to her – which, my dear, was not a good thing, because Molly Weasley is just as two-faced as her youngest children are. Ginevra was pretty good at hiding her true nature from everyone, and she had Dumbledore's help in getting into Gryffindor, since Dumbledore was all for Ginevra becoming Harry's wife. As headmaster, he could influence where the hat put people. The only way he couldn't do that was if an heir of the founders was at the school, and knew of their position as such. Then, the heirs would have power to chose where someone went."

"That sounds as though it would have been handy to have," Harry said.

"Yes, it does," Hermione agreed.

"Well, I can't help you with the heir situation," Helena said. "But, anyway, we now come to your third year. Nothing I did was able to get you around your soul mate that year, Harry, though I did manage to get you around yours, Hermione. However, because of your schedule, you ignored my signs, though he didn't actually give up on her. He, at the very least, got the signs enough that he tried to get with you. You just happened to ignore all of his attempts to doing so, though, to be fair, he didn't do anything too obvious to make you realize him. Of course, that's mostly because he didn't think that you were interested in him, and afraid of rejection. He may have had confidence, but not even the most confident guy can swallow the fear of rejection.

"As for you, Harry, you let Ron dictate your actions way too much that year. First, while you had a right to be upset at Hermione for going behind your back, you had no right to be mad and not speak to her simply because you didn't have a broom that, in all honesty, would become worthless after a certain amount of time anyway. Your reaction was like Ron's illogical one, all because the broom was the newest broom available. And you were an idiot to assume that, just because it was perfect broom, no one would even dare to curse it. Truthfully, Lucius Malfoy had actually been planning on anonymously buying you a Firebolt after hearing news about your Nimbus's encounter with the Whomping Willow, and he did plan on cursing it. If Hermione hadn't been willing to have you mad at her like she was, and Sirius not gotten the broom for you and it not circled around the school that you had it, the first time you'd rode it, you would have killed yourself.

"You should be thanking her for doing what she did, as it is the only way for you to know the truth. Not only that, but you should know that she would rather have you mad at her and never wanting to speak to her again, than have you dead, unlike Ronald, who wouldn't have cared. Not even Ginevra would have cared all that much – the only thing she would have cared about would have been the loss of her chance to not only shine in the light as your 'wife' but also the fact that she wouldn't have been able to get to your money, which are really the only two things she wanted the most.

"Anyway, you, Hermione, ignored your soul mate, and, no matter what I did, I just could not get you to meet yours, Harry, mostly thanks to that walking stomach that was almost always with you. Worst than that, though, was the fact that you, Hermione, started wondering of you and Ronald, of all people, would go good together around that time. It wasn't an obvious thought, just a subconscious one, but I still wished I could do more than I did. I tried to show you how incompatible you were with the worthless oaf, though I couldn't do my more obvious than to speak to your cat, Crookshanks, to do so. He and I have a special rapport.

"Didn't you ever wonder why Crookshanks couldn't stand Ron? How could you even think to be with someone who hated your cat straight from the beginning, and hated him? It should have been a big clue when Crookshanks liked Harry straight from the back, but not Ron, especially after seeing the way he acted towards Ron after Pettigrew was discovered. While it wasn't as bad, your cat still did things Ron hated, and still didn't care for him.

"And fourth year...I can't blame either of your for that one – or, rather, I can't really blame you, Hermione. You, Harry, I do blame. You were so hung up about Cho Chang that you refused to even bother looking at another. Not only that, but when you couldn't go to the dance with her and took Parvati Patil, you were completely rude to her, and pretty much exclusively hung out with Ron – in case your wondering, the only reason why Cho even decided to become Cedric's girlfriend when their friends pressured them into it, was because she didn't think you were available. Everyone believed, especially after the second task, that you are Ron were a couple and that the reason for her lack of at least making the evening enjoyable for Parvati was because you were mad that you couldn't be there with him."

Harry's mouth opened wide in disbelief. People – Cho included – thought he was _what_? He felt horrified at the fact. He had thought of Ron as his best friend, nothing more. However, apparently, because of his actions concerning Ron, people had gotten the wrong idea.

"There were some who even thought that Ginevra was nothing more than your beard, being that she was his sister and looked like him to a point, something that could easily be seen. I mean, even without the uniform's unflattering design of not outlining a girl's attributes, the fact that she wasn't all that well endowed anyway had people just assuming that you were with her because you couldn't be with Ron. When they heard that you'd broken up with her, well, they assumed that you'd done it because not even she – with her likeness to Ron – could hold your attention.

"Anyway, as for you, Hermione, you weren't at fault all that much for not getting with your soul mate. He was, in that he waited a bit too long before asking you to the dance, and ended up asking a friend of his there instead when he overheard you agreeing to go with Krum. He figured that, for that year, you were off limits, and that he'd try again the next year,, though he did spin a bit of a bad web while waiting for his chance with you. Of course, as you well know how that year ended, well... Let's just say that several lives were ruined.

"I stopped trying to get Hermione with her soul mate, mostly because I had been rather focused on her that I had been neglecting you, Harry. So, fifth year, I started trying to push you together with your soul mate...and wasn't able to. You pretty much ignored me – of course, the fact that, with the soul fragment in you, I had to be careful, because it wouldn't do for Riddle to know whom you were supposed to be with – and, because of that, went on a disastrous date with Cho. By the way, why did you think it would be a good idea to go out with her? I mean, seriously, her boyfriend had only just died several months before. She hadn't gotten over mourning. Add in the fact that you were the last person to see him alive, and, well, it's obvious that she wasn't going out with you to go out with you. I'm not saying you two wouldn't have been good together for a while, but that was a bad time to start dating her.

"Anyway, I've already explained sixth year to you, about how Ginevra had used the potions on you. Of course, before she upped them, I would like to point out, Harry, that I would have done what I did with Hermione, showing that you and her were incompatible. However, the little bitch who was determined to get you that she was, it was impossible to do so. Ginevra would always change anything that looked as though you wouldn't go good together, making it appear as though you two were perfect for each other.

"You weren't, of course – only your soul mate was perfect for you. Truthfully, if you hadn't been doused in love potions as you were, you would have been drawn to your soul mate within weeks of meeting her. And, you, Hermione, well, in all honesty, you were so concerned with your school work and homework, going overboard with it, that you refused to see anything other than it. Even when you agreed to go with Krum, you barely gave him attention outside of the Yule Ball."

Hermione flushed at the reminder, knowing that Helena was right.

Helena sighed, shaking her head, then placed her tea cup onto the table and stood up. "However, that's neither here nor there. While I was given permission to speak to you about your ignoring of your love lives, your purpose here was not specifically because I needed you. I was mostly just allowed to badger you about your choices in love and how you were ignoring me – and I will admit, I take great pleasure at yelling at you for this fact."

Helena giggled a bit after saying that, unable to help doing so.

"Wait, if we're not here for you, then what is our purpose here?" Hermione said. "And why have you deliberately been vague about who our soul mates are, keeping them a secret from us?"

Helena smiled mysteriously. "I have kept who your soul mates are a secret because why you are here. You will understand once Tryst here explains it to you," she said, walking over to where the other goddess stood. Tryst rolled her eyes as she stepped forward, taking the seat that Helena had just vacated. The difference between the two was startling. Whereas Helena had emanated a warm aura, seemingly welcoming towards them, Tryst was the opposite. Cold seemed to seep from her very presence, her expression closed and indifference, and the two couldn't help but squirm in their seats as she sat down.

"All right, now that Helena's done chewing you two out," she said, her voice still icy sounding, "it's my turn. In truth, why I'm here will help explain the purpose of you being here, so I would suggest that you not interrupt too much. "You're here because of the mess you caused within the last year, specifically within the part of realm that I deal with – as in, death. The problem is that too many people who weren't scheduled to die did, while quite a few who were didn't. See, while I don't have a 'have to be followed to the letter' list written down, I do have somewhat of one. And when a bunch of deaths happen out of order I don't like it. I get especially angry when these deaths happen because someone who was supposed to die instead didn't. It even annoys me somewhat when a death happen the wrong way because of this fact."

Harry and Hermione looked a bit guilty over hearing that it was the last year that had caused this problem. However, while they could see that they did have some blame, They couldn't see how that had all the blame on them, like Tryst seemed to be suggesting. She noticed this fact.

"The blame on you is small, though huge at the same time. The problem is that you both refused to do the right thing during the war, which is killing any of the threats you came across. You refused to do more than Stunners and calm curses against them, refusing to truly put them down like the mad dogs that they were," Tryst said.

"But if we had killed them, wouldn't it had made us just as bad as they were?" Hermione interrupted.

"One of the first things you should realize is that, in a war, morals like that don't do you any good," Tryst said. "People are going to die, no matter what you do. What you should have asked is if it's alright to let an obvious murder be allowed to roam free or put them down like the worthless dogs they are, with your answer being the latter. Did you know that, by letting them roam free as you did, you were allowing them to kill again" Every person whose life they ended after you let them lived, is blood on your hands – those feelings of guilt you have from all those who died, it's rightfully carried by you two, in my honest opinion.

"Of course I can't blame the two of you straight up. It's not your fault that you believed that doing what they did would be stooping to there levels. No, the main problem pretty much lies upon one man, and one man only: Albus Dumbledore." Tryst said his name with such disgust and loathing that the two shivered, and withheld their usual words of his brilliance. "Because of him, you were left with an unrealistic idea of the world, that everything is black and white, no shades of gray in between, meaning that you were either dark and evil, or good and light. Unfortunately, the real world is not that simple, and it is simply Dumbledore's fault that you seem unaware of this fact.

"Because of Dumbledore, you were unable to save several lives. And what makes it even worse is the fact that you didn't just take that lesson as what was right, but you also took in the lesson that you should never trust anyone he didn't tell you to trust. He pretty much made it so that you wouldn't accept help from anyone other than each other, despite the fact that you desperately needed it, and had no reason not to accept it, other than idiotic loyalty to a man who didn't deserve it.

"And that's not counting the other things he's done. Rita Skeeter's book only scratched the surface of his sins."

The two couldn't keep quiet anymore, not liking how she was disparaging the name of their old headmaster, especially after the mention of Skeeter, whom neither liked. Tryst took their protests the way that Helena had done so with Ginny and Ron, waiting rather impatiently for them to finish.

"Look, despite what you think, the truth stand: because you decided to listen to him and do what he wanted instead of coming up with a better plan, many people died before they should have, and you ignore people who could have helped you out. Besides, exactly what has he really done to have the level of loyalty from you, Harry? Or how about you, Hermione? Is there any other reason besides he was an authority figure and the leader of the light for your loyalty? That answer to both is nothing and no.

"Are you even aware, Harry, that he not only kept things from you, but that he also purposely made sure that there was no way for you to leave your Aunt and Uncle before you were of age to do so? Albus Dumbledore is nothing more than a manipulator, having to have everything go his way, believing himself to be above even gods and fate itself. And, while he has done some good things, more of his choices have not been such. And if you think otherwise, well, you're about to get a rude awakening."

The two stopped their sputterings about Dumbledore at that point, though the defiant looks on their faces said that they didn't believe her at the moment. She didn't care, though, because they would soon enough.

"Now, let's look at his beginning with you, Harry. Actually, no, let's look a bit further back. Let's look at a bit before you were born, when Trelawney uttered her prophecy. As you were told, during her interview at the Hog's Head with Dumbledore, she uttered a prophecy that was partially overheard by Snape, who then went running to his master and informing him about it, correct? That's what Dumbledore told you, right?"

Harry nodded.

"The prophecy, of course, was stated as such: ' _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...'_ Correct?" Tryst said.

Again, Harry nodded, while Hermione looked slightly interested. Even though Harry had mentioned it before, he hadn't actually told her and Ron the actual contents of the prophecy, just the basic summary of it. To hear it in whole was interesting to her.

"Okay, so that's been rehashed," Tryst said. "Unfortunately, there is a problem – you were lied to, Harry. The interview did not take place at the Hogs Head; it actually took place in the headmaster's office. It was a stormy night that night, which was why Trelawney didn't come up to the castle herself, which you were even told. So why would Dumbledore walk to the Hog's Head himself when the whole reason for not having Trelawney come up to the castle herself was because of that. No, she used the floo to come to Hogwarts, at which point the interview and prophecy took place.

"When he first heard it, he was more than grateful to know that there would be an end, until the actual words of the prophecy had penetrated his brain, at which point, he stopped liking what he'd heard, and started disliking it, to the point that he didn't bother to really look indepth to it. He purposely arranged for another meeting between then at the Hog's Head, used a very old, obscure potion to make Trelawney repeat her prophecy, and made sure that he had the attention of someone. Unfortunately, not only did he forget the part of the Dark Lord marking his rival his equal, but his brother caught Snape before that part could be repeated again, causing Trelawney to break from her trance and ruining everything. Worse than that, it did get around to the Ministry that Dumbledore had overheard a prophecy, so he was forced to give up the memory of it – the full prophecy, in fact, as those little orbs take the full one heard from someone – to them, which he did not care for."

"Why would he not like the prophecy?" Hermione asked, sounding skeptical over what she was being told, but obviously listening to it.

"The prophecy basically stated that it would not be him who defeated Riddle, but someone else," Tryst told her. "That was the part he found unacceptable. You see, the letter Skeeter had placed in her book was indeed written by him. Dumbledore was, quite literally, mad with power. He had his own views of how the world should be, views that were much like Grindelwald's, only he didn't have the stomach to straight up kill people without having a justifiable – to him – reason for it. In fact, the only reason why he even faced Grindelwald was because he had grown jealous of the power the dark wizard had managed to amass, as well as his possession of the Elder Wand. It tore him that Grindelwald was about to take _his_ ideas and rule Europe, when he believed that it was what he deserved.

"So, he faced his old friend in battle, and managed to win, both the duel and wand. As I mentioned before, he doesn't have the stomach to straight up kill someone, she he imprisoned Grindelwald instead, making it so only he knew where to find him, so he could gloat over his victories against his old friend. And he had victories. Upon his defeat of the dark wizard, he was voted head of the government as the previous had been murdered a few months before he went to face his old friend. He became ambassador for Britain in the ICW, eventually becoming Supreme Mugwump of the august body within a mere month of that appointment. He was also given the position of Headmaster the very next school year, as the then headmaster decided to retire.

"The only position he never accepted was Minister of Magic, and, despite what he said, he would have if he could. The only reason why he didn't is because ancient, unbreakable magic makes it impossible for it to happen. It was decided, long ago, that, in order to make sure that no dictatorship happened, the Minister of Magic and Head of Hogwarts could not be the same person at all. One could not hold the positions at the same time. That was the only think that had stopped Dumbledore from becoming Minister, because he would have had to chose between that position and being head of Hogwarts, and he knew which position was the one that held the most power."

"Wait, how could being head of Hogwarts give him more power than being Minister?" Harry asked.

"Simple," Tryst said. "He was in a position to shape young, impressionable mind. He made it very well known of his 'magnifigance' known to every student there, repeatedly, until it was engraved into their minds. Even those who didn't like him believed in that. He'd molded your minds into thinking that his word was equal to that of the Gods – it's not, by the way, and he will be forever paying for even thinking he could do that – while also taking about your free will bit by bit. Oh, he was good enough to make sure you didn't notice it, but it was the truth. The sad thing about this is the fact that he'd managed to twist your minds so much that you never bothered to question certain things that you should have. That right there is a sign of his power over you – as is your defense for him. He's manipulated you two very well."

There was silence after that, with the two looking at each other. Though they wanted to dismiss her words, they could tell that every single one of them was true. They had been, from the very beginning, told about how great Dumbledore was. Hermione had even come across such information like that even before she'd gone to the school – it had, after all, been one of the main factors for her having wanted to be in Gryffindor. As for Harry, he had looked up to the man straight from the start, his caring personality making Harry feel as though he was an adult worth trusting.

"Anyway, back to the prophecy," Tryst continued, "After his mess up, he knew that he had to at least appear willing to protect the possible child of the prophecy, particularly as his brother had also heard it, and informed the other members of the Order of the Phoenix about it, thus making it impossible for Dumbledore to really hide it. The only thing is, Alberforth didn't tell them everything he heard – for safety, of course, because he knew that the possibility of a spy being in the group was high, even if Dumbledore acted like it was impossible – and Dumbledore took advantage of that fact, using it as a reason not to tell anyone himself.

"As you are well aware, Dumbledore was supposedly told that your parents were under target by Voldemort. The truth of the matter actually is, they weren't at that time. Dumbledore decided the fact that both you and Neville were supposed to be born around that time was enough to tell him that it had to be one of you, and purposely put the information out so as to have Voldemort target one of the two of you, instead of looking into everyone born around that time – which included the Malfoys, Greengrasses, and several Muggleborns whom had also managed to survive his death orders thrice. He couldn't have the chosen one being born out of his grasp, after all.

"It took Dumbledore all of five minutes to learn that you, Harry, was the main focus of him, a fact that delighted him. You see, unlike most of the wizarding world, your father did not truly trust him. Oh, he was on his side, but that was about it. Your father did not blindly believe Dumbledore, which was something that truly irritated him. It didn't help that Lily was the same way – a part of the draw to her for you father, in fact. Unlike you two, as she went through school, she wasn't blind to his actions, and realized just what a hypocrite he was.

"Anyway, after that, he mostly focused on the Potters, trying to get them to do something he wanted, though he did not ignore Neville. No, he suggested that the Longbottoms go into hiding, which they did. Your parents, however didn't want to do that at first. They only did so after Voldemort almost managed to harm you, Harry, two months after you were born. Your mother started researching ways to hide themselves, and found the Fidelus Charm not long after, which was performed not long afterward – and yes, I'm sure you can figure out what that means. They were under it for almost a year before Pettigrew betrayed them, not that anyone realized it at the time. They were very careful to make sure that didn't happen.

"Eventually, though, they began to become paranoid that Dumbledore was about to discover this fact, and therefore didn't say anything about the fact that they were already under the charm when he suggested they use it. Of course, this suggestion came about via Order meeting, so his suggestion said that they should hide themselves, not you. Sirius was supposed to be the Secret Keeper – in fact, he was when the spell was performed right there at the Meeting, after arrangements had been made to for them to live in Godric's Hollow. He was also, in case your wondering, the original Secret Keeper when they had first performed the spell, though that spell dissolved once the new one was placed, as Lily did both of them, therefore erasing the original one – if it focuses on the same opponent and is cast by the same person, then it basically mostly changes it to fit the new one.

"Unfortunately – due to Dumbledore's need to have more control, and wanting the child of the prophecy gone – he let it slip who it the Secret Keeper was, and your mother eventually decided to change who it was. Sirius's only part in it was not only going along with her suggestions, but also saying the keep saying it was him, but put Peter in as the Secret Keeper instead, a change he was manipulated into make due to Dumbledore – only a fool would believe that he didn't know about Peter being a spy. Peter was no occlumens, he was piss poor wizard with very little talent. His only reason for passing school and even being about to become an animagus is because of your father, Sirius, and Remus.

"Fast forward to the night that you were attack. To Dumbledore extreme displeasure, you survived the night, though he was only a little bit displeased – he believed that he would be able to spin the story his way, having Hagrid go and get you. Now, here's something strange about that: outside of Peter, Sirius was the only one who had access to the house after the switch was made, and yet Hagrid was able to come into the house and meet Sirius trying to get you out of there. Did you even wonder about that when Hagrid told you, Harry? What about you, Hermione? When Harry finally told you about what Hagrid had told him about that night, did you happen to realize that once you'd found out about the Fidelus spell having been cast?"

They both shook their heads, wondering what on Earth that had to do with anything.

"You don't get what I'm trying to get at, do you? No one knew that the Secret Keeper had been changed except for Dumbledore, Peter, Sirius and your parents, Harry. Sirius was the only one given permission to visit after that happened, and Dumbledore only knew that it's happened because he'd read it from Peter's mind. You were still alive, though, so Hagrid should not have been able to get into the house, yet he was. Do you know why? It's because you were not in the parameter of the spell. It was specifically keyed to your parents, and you were left unprotected. If your parents had been out of the house with you, you would have been left unprotected, and possibly killed sooner rather than when you were – especially since it was your mother's sacrifice, which called upon ancient magic that allowed you to live, a fact that everyone seems to forget quite a bit.

"Of course, that's not surprising. The magical world is a bit biased towards Pure-bloods – no one would willing give a Muggleborn credit if they could avoid it. And Dumbledore did everything possible to make sure that it never happened, too. While he didn't care for the fact hat you seemed to be supplanting him, he was sickened by the idea that a Muggleborn would be the one to do so. It's why, when he couldn't spin a tail that painted him as a hero, and you as a tragic little orphan whom he just managed to arrive and save, he made sure that the tale that was spun barely considered your mother, or where her body was positioned at. And that's not the only disservice he gave towards her. After all, other than being told you have her eyes, and Snape's memories, what do you really know about your mother that isn't generic information that you could find with a little bit of research?"

Harry's eyes widened when he heard that, but, instead of starting to speak, he paused, thinking about what she'd said, as well as looking over to Hermione, who also had a thinking face on. It was true, all of it. Not only was it impossible for him to have been to rescued by Hagrid due to that, but he knew next to nothing about his mother, had never been told that he was similar in manner or action to her, had barely heard her name being spoken about without it being connected to his father's name. In other words, he truly knew nothing about Lily Potter.

As for the bias towards Pure-bloods, to say that wasn't true was to show himself as being pigheaded, as he had seen plenty of evidence of it during school, along with blatant corruption of the Ministry. He also remembered Dumbledore's insistence that they never do more harm than a simple stunner or disarm, giving the belief that to do more would be something only a dark wizard would do. Yet, Harry couldn't help but wonder if that was actually the truth or not. He'd never seen Dumbledore fight against an non-pure-blood,so he couldn't be sure, but he also got the feeling that Dumbledore would fight differently against them. And then he remembered that Dumbledore had fought against Tom, who was half-blood, and he certainly had been a bit more aggressive than he had before...

"You really know nothing about your mother, right? You'd get so over informed about your father that you just forgot to think about learning something about your mother, which was something that Dumbledore was happy to have happen. But, let's not dwell on that anymore.

"So, we have his actions to when he received the prophecy, when you were born, and the night Tom attempted to kill you. So, let's look at his actions to placing you with the Dursleys. Now, according to the wizarding world, you were immediately placed with them, just hours after your parents death. That's not true. You spent a day in the care of a Healer who hid the fact that they'd seen you because Dumbledore warned her that someone might target you if they knew you were in her care. Hagrid took you straight to this Healer, on Dumbledore's orders, because Dumbledore was working on two things: spinning a believable story that would paint him as the one who managed to rid of Voldemort, and talking to the Dursleys about taking you in, which he then, after getting them to sign an agreement in blood – Muggles might not be able to use magic, but a small amount is in their blood, so signing a magical oath is possible with them – erased the memory of from their minds.

"Of course, as I'm sure you're aware of, Dumbledore wasn't able to spin his tale. In truth, what happened was that Hagrid, after leaving you with the Healer, got drunk and spilled what he knew of the story out – that Riddle had attacked your family, that your parents were dead, and that you had survived, despite the fact that the house was burning down around you. He also included seeing Riddle's robes on the ground in your room. It only took that little bit for people to get the conclusion that was the closest to the truth. And, of course, when Dumbledore heard this, he ended up being in a meeting all day after the news had spread, making sure to fight every effort of any magical family member trying to get custody of you, from your paternal grandfather to Andromeda Tonks, who is related to you, if your wondering.

"Meanwhile, several hours after the news broke out, Hagrid ran into McGonagall, who was looking for Dumbledore, and learned where Dumbledore was going to be that very night, though she didn't know exactly why. And so she sat on the wall, watching that house all day, seeing just how horrid those people were. Yet, when Dumbledore came, and got confirmation that what Hagrid had told everyone was true – something Dumbledore hated admitting to, incidentally – she only fought for half a second against you being placed there, giving up on it once he Dumbledore mentioned that it was the 'best place for you to live'.

"Now, as you know, they took you in, but did you ever wonder why? They'd always made it clear that they didn't want you there, but they still took you in? Why would they do that? More than that, why did they have to leave around the same time you did when you were finally able to part from each other?

"I'll tell you why, the one, simple answer for all those questions, though it does break down a bit as well: Dumbledore made a magic oath that, if they took you in, they would be protected from any magical danger. More than that, he even gave assurance that, so long as they didn't attempt to straight up kill you, they could do whatever they wanted to you."

Harry looked at Tryst, startled and horrified by her words.

"Yes, they were given free range to basically beat you, rape you, do whatever they wanted, so long as you didn't die from what they did, and you weren't informed about anything concerning your parents. And it was only the latter bit that they really didn't mind having to do. And Dumbledore didn't care what they did, even encourage that they do what they did during their little 'agreement' talk. He didn't care about what the effect was on you – so long as you were down trodden as possible, as well as saw the wizarding world, and him in particular, as a savior to fit in and follow, then it meant a job well done.

"He also made sure they were well paid for their 'care' for you, including a pre-arranged payment for services rendered. Dumbledore – using money from your main vault – paid them five thousand galleons monthly – basically, twenty-five thousand pounds a month – to 'care' for you, with bonuses of three thousand every three months, which paid for any extra damage done to you. They were also gifted with an additional payment of fourteen thousand galleons, to be delivered to them anytime before your seventeenth birthday, which was done not because of the fact that they he planned on having you out of there before that time, but because you would have been notified of any large amounts about to be taken from your vaults, and could not only have learned what it was for – exactly – but stopped it from going.

"And, since you might have gotten suspicious, looked deeper into your finances, and discovered what they were paid, what it was for, and would have been given the option of suing them for the misuse of monies, which would have financially ruined them. However, by making sure that it was payed before your seventeenth birthday, he made sure that you could not know about it, without looking at your finances, which he knew you most likely wouldn't do. And he wasn't worried about you discovering the money missing – as I'm sure you remember, you are among the riches wizards in Britain, and easily gain more than that amount two weeks, which was why he felt so safe in having them paid the amount he did.

"You should have realized that something was up when Dumbledore insisted that you go back there during the summer after your fourth year. You really had no reason to go there, especially once the Fidelius Charm was placed on Grimmauld. You should have gone there once that happened. More than that, you shouldn't have stayed at the Dursleys, for any reason once that was was done, but you were did, because, by then, disobeying Dumbledore's orders was a foreign idea to you. So, that's what you did, becoming angry and bitter with everyone, isolated from your friends, whom you also got angry a. Which reminds me..."

She pinned Harry with a piercing glare, one that made him shift uncomfortable.

"You know, while Ron fully deserved your ire, Hermione did not. Despite how her letters sounded, she actually didn't arrive at Grimmauld until two days before you did. She was simply told not to call on you, nor was she really allowed to write straight out to you. All letters she wrote were sent to Grimmauld, where Dumbledore approved letters that had been made beforehand were actually sent in their stead. The only reason why Hermione didn't say anything about this was because she was placed under oath not to, and, her first night there, Dumbledore memory charmed her, placing her under yet another spell to go along with the memories he placed in her head right then. She didn't write anything that would suggest that she knew something because, in truth, she really didn't, and couldn't have even if she did. If you had talked to her, you would have realized that something strange was going on, though, because Dumbledore messed up on the memory spell, and her account of her summer would have been confusing to listen too.

"Anyway, let's get back on track. Enter your first year, or rather, let's go a bit before, to your letter, the one you finally got to read. Now, Hagrid is the one who came, and, while he is a nice guy, that right there shouldn't have happened. Why? Because Hagrid was not qualified to tell you everything you needed, nor was he the right person to inform you about Hogwarts houses. While he did a good job telling you about what happened with your parents, you would have gotten a bit more information from someone else. Plus, you were informed about the houses in a completely biased way. You took what people said as how the houses actually were, and, while you not caring for Slytherin is understandable because of Riddle having been in it, you basically ignored the fact that not everyone in that house is evil, labeling them all the same. And don't get me started about Hufflepuff, which the thought of you going there made you gloomy.

"No, letting Hagrid be the one to tell you things was not the best idea.

"However, it's not the fact that Hagrid was your guide that irritated me. No, what does was that Hagrid purposely, instead of doing so while you were getting your measurements for your robes, got his 'super secret' parcel that Dumbledore told him to get, right in front of you, a kid who was more likely than not, curious about it. Of course, your curiosity was just what Dumbledore wanted – he wanted you to be curious about the item, particularly since he knew that you would strike up a friendship with Hagrid, and, therefore, go down to visit him when you could, or when you were invited.

"Anyway, onto your actual first year. I will admit, most of your first year went pretty normal, other than you being given slight preferential treatment, like your Seeker position on the Gryffindor team as opposed to a detention as you should have gotten, though that really has nothing to do with your abilities, and everything to do with the fact that McGonagall is such a Quidditch nut that she would have done anything to have a good player on the team, especially when the player at the moment is so horrible that she went to bed weeping at the idea of him being on the team for yet another year.

"In fact, the only out of ordinary thing is the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone. And yet, it played such an important part of your first year.

"You see, remember what I said about Dumbledore wanting you to know about that package, wanted you to be curious about it. That's because he was setting up a test for you, and the 'stone', which, by the way, was a complete fake, was the means of doing so. Did you not wonder why a high-security vault, that could only be opened by a goblin, was accessable by a simple letter from Dumbledore, especially when the item in question did not belong to him? That's because he had ordered the vault, and placed a fake stone within. You see, if you had bothered to use your brains, and not forgotten that Nicolas Flamel was over six hundred years old, you would have pondered on the fact that, if he lived to be six hundred, and it was known how he did so, he must've had some way of making sure that no one else could get it, and, if it had worked for that long, why would he suddenly let a child – for that is what Dumbledore is to him – have a say over the security. The answer is, he didn't.

"Flamel is still alive and kicking, enjoying the wonders of Japan right now, while making sure the process for making the Elixir of Life aspect of the stone is ready to work again sometime soon – I'll tell you a little secret about it: Even if Dumbledore had been given the real stone, and you hadn't gone after it, and Voldemort had gotten it, it would have just poisoned him, because the stone requires an ingredient that he would never have access to, because he'd never fathered a child, much less a daughter.

"Anyway, back to the matter at hand. As I said already you were supposed to be curious about the stone. You became even more curious about it upon seeing a conveniently left out newpaper, turned to the exact page that informed you of an attempted robbery of Gringotts, which helped bring the stone to your mind. And, of course, once you stumbled upon Fluffy, you started becoming even more curious – mostly due to the fact that you became convinced that Snape had something to do about the package, that he wanted what it was.

"Anyway, let's just say, for the rest of the time, up until you went through the trapdoor, you gained some more clues. Do you honestly think that Hagrid wasn't told to let it slip about Nicolas Flamel? He was – or, rather, he was told to keep it secret from anyone but you, but not to make it appear as if he was allowed to talk about it in front of you. His annoyances and attempts to get you to stop trying to find out about the Stone was because his instructions had confused him a bit, since Dumbledore didn't tell him the way I just said it. But, Hagrid telling you was not accidental. Despite what people say, if you don't employ the three methods, and he's not convinced to give it up, he actually is very good about keeping a secret from people – the reason for his expulsion and what the tasks of the tournament were are excellent examples of this.

"Anyway, about your adventure through the trapdoor. Now, tell me, did you not find it strange that you were gifted with a means to get past Fluffy from Hagrid, who was the only one who knew how to at the time? You getting that flute was no accident – Dumbledore convinced Hagrid to part with it for you when his intended present wasn't finished yet.

"However, my main concern about your trapdoor adventure is this: how in hell did you not become suspicious when you went through the traps for the stone? Think about it; none of them posed any problem to any of you three, with the only one that did already taken care of. How did you not realized that, of all the tasks, three of them were suited to you in such a way that they couldn't have been designed for anyone but you to run them. The only tasks not designed specifically for you was the Troll – which, incidentally, is a specialty of Quirrell's talents – and the plant, which, if you'd thought about it, was perfect for Neville, who, incidentally, was with you when you when you first ran into Fluffy. Coincidence? Nope. Dumbledore had the traps changed after you four met Fluffy, thinking that you'd all end up going through them.

"You didn't do what Dumbledore was actually hoping of you. You managed to 'pass' your test, with flying colors, much to his annoyance. What was worse is that you actually managed to save the 'stone'. His little bull shit story about how he had the stone destroyed with the Flamels blessings was just to make sure you didn't attempt to contact them at some point, whether to give the stone back, or to simply let them know that they almost came close to losing it. If you had done that, you would have gotten the shock of your life, and you would have been a bit smarter about trusting Dumbledore.

"As it is, you didn't, and so you proved yourself to be Dumbledore's little puppy, in a way.

"After your first year, during the summer, you were almost starved to death, and the Weasleys somehow – considering that the house was supposedly 'protected' from any wizards, not just evil ones – managed to rescue you, taking you to their house. You were then intergrated into their family, though with some special treatment, and you even went to Diagon Alley with them, managed to get lost in the floo where you ended up on Knockturn Alley and witnessed the exchange between Malfoy and Borgin. You then ran into the family again, witnessed a fight as well as heard Lockhart announce himself as the new DADA teacher. And, finally, you were almost late because you ended up having to turn around three times – with the last one being completely unneeded – and ended up going to Hogwarts in a different way than by train. Did I pretty much get everything important? Yes, good."

Tryst paused for a moment, waving her hand and causing the tea set to disappear, tall glass bottles of a dark liquid appearing in it's place.

"Soda, you can have one if you want," Tryst said, taking one of the glass bottles, and taking a swig from it. "Now, your second year was anything but typical. You had to deal with students being petrified, people believing it was you, and the teachers doing shit to help, especially Dumbledore. And the idea of the school closing down never occurred to them until towards the end. Want to know why? It's because Muggleborns were being attacked, which automatically meant that there was no reason to close the school down. After all, they were just Muggleborns, no one of worth. They only seriously considered closing the school – even Dumbledore, mind you – when Ginny was taken. Strange, is it not, that that's the only time it was taken as the threat it was? I can honestly tell you right now, that if the victims had been pure-blood, they wouldn't have wasted a second closing the school down once the attack was discovered.

"Meanwhile, everything seemed to be pointing to you Harry, because those targeted had seemingly been targeted by you in some manner, and not a good way, either. Everyone, other than Hermione, that you seemingly got irritated with – and that was a Muggleborn – ended up petrified. Hermione is the only one that you weren't irritated with that ended up petrified. And the reason for all of it was that Ginny chose the victims. She may not remember actually doing the tasks, but when she wrote in Riddle's diary, she mentioned her thoughts about them, such as Filch should be ashamed to even attempt to give you detention, that Colin should never irritated you, and that you're obviously mad at Justin for something if you sent a snake on him – remember, she didn't know what it was that you said – so obviously he deserves something bad to happen to him.

"As for you, Hermione, you're attack actually had nothing to do with luring Harry, as Riddle told Harry. No, you were targeted because Ginny saw you as a threat to her getting Harry. She saw you as her main rival for his affections, and wanted you truly dead. It was only Hermione's smart thinking that she didn't get her wish."

Hermione looked stunned to learn that, as well as sickened. To know that the one girl she counted as her closest female friend had wanted her dead – and probably would always want her dead for her connection with Harry – shocked and hurt her.

"Anyway, we all know how that year ended, with Ginny acting as though she had nothing to do but having written in the diary like a foolish little girl – despite the fact that, if she was truly smart, she wouldn't have continued writing in it after she retrieved it from you, Harry, and the fact that she did showed that she actually had no problem in letting Riddle use her to attack people.

"So, anyway, we all know what happened during your third year – my only problem was that you chose Ron's side over Hermione's repeatedly, and ignored the clues that you discovered that told you that Sirius wasn't quite as guilty as he seemed until you saw Pettigrew, and therefore couldn't continue lying to yourself. Fourth year, you were ostricized after becoming a champion, up until the first task, where you showed that you could possibly win, and everyone rushed back to being on your side, especially Ron, in hopes of having some glory. Fifth year... Don't really have to say it? Only problem there was that you didn't listen to Hermione at all, despite the fact that you should have. Sixth...well, you've already been told about what happened that year. And this last year, it's still in your mind, so we don't need to rehash it. And, I'm only speed running through your third year and onward because we are on a time constraint, and there are a few things I want to talk to you about. Plus, I've talked about Dumbledore plenty.

"In fact, the two other things that I have to say about him. The first is the fact that he really did nothing to help Sirius should have told you that something was up, especially since he could have gotten Snape to get him in some way or another. And, the truth is, to Dumbledore, Pettigrew was more important than Sirius, not only because he was near Voldemort, so it would allow him to pay his life debt to you, but because Pettigrew actually knew that the blood status was important to keep, that he was smart in knowing that it shouldn't be dirtied up, which is something that Sirius didn't believe to be true.

"The second thing is how he took advantage of your emotional state after your godfather had died – which was a death that could have been avoided if you had only listened to Hermione, and also remembered that Kreacher was not your elf, and, therefore, could lie to you. There's also the fact that if you had been able to actually be taught Occlumency in the way it's supposed to be taught, as well as not been kept out of the loop, you would have been able to prevent his death. Dumbledore, when he sensed you wanting to withdrawal from humanity after Sirius's death, only told you what he did because he did not want to lose control of you. After all, he had such great plans to what he wanted done. He didn't want to risk them not happening."

"What...what were those plans?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"Dumbledore only read the prophecy in a way that fit his thinking and ideal of himself. He made it appear as if he took the words 'live' and 'survive' to mean the same thing, but, in truth, he understood what it really meant. He knew that, until one of you killed the other, he couldn't rid of Voldemort and bring glory back onto himself. What his plans were, was to have Voldemort kill you, Harry, and for him to swoop in and rid of Voldemort himself, thus becoming the 'Great Albus Dumbledore' once again, a title that was slipping away once you were born, Harry," Tryst said. "Of course, as we all know, that's not what happened. He changed his plans a bit when he learned he couldn't prevent his death, and decided to go for the next best thing – becoming the next Merlin. And it did work, since everyone knows that he mentored you.

"Anyway, that's enough about him. No, what I want to talk about is Ronald," Tryst said.

"What about Ron?" Hermione asked.

"I have to know, why in hell did you let Ron anywhere near you two?" Tryst said. "He was a big part in quite a few mistakes you'd make, tried his best to keep you friendless save for with members of his family, and did everything he could to appear as if he was the only one worthy of your attention, Harry. More than that, he would argue with Hermione about every little thing, and put her down for any spellwork she did, especially when it was better than his own. Plus, in addition of having a good amount of control over your actions, such as ignoring Hermione, Harry, he wasn't all that helpful, now was he?"

"That's not true," Harry said. "He's helped us out a lot."

"Oh, really? Okay, let's look at his track record. First year, when he challenged Hermione to do the Levitating Spell, what did he do when she did it. Did he go ' _oh, perhaps I should take her advice so I can do the spell. After all, it's obviously good advice.'_ No, he sulked like a little baby and then made fun of her, knowing she was within hearing distance – did you think he was unaware of it. He wasn't. His parting advice about her not having any friends was meant to be heard by her as well, which was why he said it slightly louder than he needed to.

"When you wanted to go looking for the troll, it took a while to convince him to go, and he worried about Percy seeing, not because Percy would stop them, but because it would then get out that he knowingly made it so that Hermione was in danger – even if he was unaware of what would happen, the fact that he didn't attempt to immediately mention telling Percy that Hermione here was missing says that he honestly didn't care about anything but himself. Plus, a good part of him was hoping that you'd get into trouble with the teachers, because the idiot didn't think that anyone would actually ask you why you were where you were and why you didn't follow directions – of course, Ron didn't realize that Percy would have done a head count, and that others would tell the teachers that you hadn't been at the feast when Quirrell mentioned the troll. Basically, his ideas of what was to happen was pretty messed up. The only reason why he went with you, was because he wanted a bit of the glory he was sure you'd end up somehow causing.

"But tell me, doing the whole time you guys were there, did he ever take five steps away from the door. No, he didn't. Had the troll actually went after him, he would have ran like a bat out of hell. Of course, you didn't let that happen."

"Wait, that's not right. I only jumped on it because of the fact that the troll was going after Ron, and he was trapped," Harry said. Tryst shook her head.

"You just didn't see the door – you weren't really paying much attention to your surroundings, because you were more focused on keeping an eye on Ron and Hermione, as well as what the troll was doing. I can assure you, had you not jumped on it, when the troll began heading towards him, you would have seen him disappear, and do it fast. In fact, you could have easily grabbed Hermione, and pulled her into the one stall that hadn't been knocked down, and hidden in there while the troll went after Ron. Plus, Ron would have been quite safe, since he would have run into the teachers as well, and they would have protected him – though, he would have had detention, which he kind of deserved.

"Anyway, let's take another look at your first year, specifically, when you'd gone after Quirrell about that fake stone. Now, while he's good at chess, I do happen to know that, if you had bothered making other friends besides him, you would have met someone whose even better at chess, and would have been able to make sure no one got hurt. More than that, this person wouldn't have taken the convenient chance to get himself out of the game as soon as possible, such as Ron did – since neither of you are all that good at chess, you wouldn't have noticed, but there was a way for you to have won, without Ron getting 'hurt'. It would have just taken two different moves, without the one Ron took. Plus, tell me, Hermione, do you remember how it took him awhile to 'wake up'?"

"It was because he had been knocked out," Hermione said, though she sounded quite a bit unsure, the words Tryst had said about the traps having been trials – in a way – for them going through her mind.

"Was there any blood? Any cuts, bumps, bruises?" Tryst asked her. Hermione shook her head, feeling even more uneasy. "I'll tell you a little secret: he was faking being seriously hurt. He really wasn't. As ruthless as the white pieces looked, they were also charmed with a cushioning spell. Ron had noticed this, mostly because he realized that, if they weren't, the black pieces would have been completely in shattered pieces without it, and wouldn't have been able to just be huddled on the side. It's why he told you not to check on him before he moved – he knew that he'd be huddled onto the side as well, and saw it as an easy way to get out of going the rest of the way. He didn't want you checking on him because he knew that you'd probably notice that he wasn't unconscious, as he was pretending to be."

"But then, why did it take me so long to wake him up," Hermione countered.

"He was afraid that you'd come to make him go forward with you," Tryst said blankly. "Didn't you notice that the moment you mentioned needing to get Dumbledore, he suddenly stirred and 'woke up'."

"But, he could have gotten Harry killed," Hermione cried.

"Yes, in a way, though Harry really didn't need Dumbledore, as he was doing more than alright on his own. Still, if he hadn't, the world would have been down one hero, but he didn't care, so long as he wasn't killed," Tryst said, her distaste for his actions obvious. "In fact, he would have preferred it. He truly hated you, Harry, and only pretended to be your friend because he liked the fame that came with being such – though he didn't care for the hate that happened at times.

"Anyway, moving onto your second year. Did you know that Ron's first actions, up until you mentioned the car, was to use your owl. The only reason why he hadn't suggested it yet was because he didn't want to, finding it a bit mundane, and embarrassing, that you needed help. When you mentioned the car, that was when he got his 'brilliant' idea to drive it, not because you needed to get to school, but because he believed that it would have helped give him a bit of fame. I mean, driving a car to the school, people would have been talking about that for year, paying attention to him, making it feel as if he was famous.

"Of course, as you well know, it didn't quite happen the way that he wanted it to, and then, upon getting the Howler, he was quite happy to have people leave him alone, especially since the memory of his 'triumph' was so tainted now. And he only went into the forest because he wanted you, Hermione, to know that he did so. You see, he saw how close you two could be sometimes, and he didn't like it, not only because he believed that you should be with his sister, as well as the fact that he secretly thought that the Potters shouldn't marry Muggleborn anymore, because the family needed to get back to it's proper pure-blood status – a fact, truthfully, he'd heard his mother say many times – but also because he didn't like the idea of you being happy, and, seeing how you and Hermione was, he got the idea that you liked her. So, he wanted to make you want him, not because of any real feelings he had for you – he actually thought you beneath him, because was a bit of pure-blood bigot, as was his mother, in case your wondering – but because he thought that the two of you were beginning to have feelings for each other, not realizing how you really saw each other.

"Then, when it came to going into the chamber, he really had no plans of going all the way with you. As concerned as he was for his sister, he was more concerned about himself – a, as you would put it, true Slytherin move, honestly. And there were clues to this, too. Remember, when you blasted Lockhart's wand from his hand, and he caught it, he immediately threw it out the window? Now, why would he do an idiotic thing like that? His wand was broke, had been since the beginning of the year, and it had been acting up so much already. And yet, the moment a working wand was in his hand, he threw it away.

"He did that because he knew that his wand would act up, and hopefully make it so that he didn't have to go with you. In truth, the only thing he hadn't planned on was Lockhart attempting to steal it, but he didn't fight against him when he did, knowing that it would actually look better if he let Lockhart do it, because that way you wouldn't suspect him to have actually wanted to leave you to face whatever alone. He had purpose ran away from you when the rock slide began, despite the fact that he could have easily ran towards you and made it, too, but his own skin was way more important than helping you."

"But, that could have gotten his sister killed," Hermione said. While she wasn't to much of a fan of Ginny right now with what she'd just learned about her, that didn't mean that she wanted her dead.

"And, again, Ron didn't care one little bit, so long as he was alive and alright," Tryst said. "In fact, I don't know if you've realize this, but some of those rumors that floated around, were circulated by him, especially the ones that mentioned him in a more active light. It always pissed him off when others would change it away from him being the focus, especially when he'd go through 'all that hard work' to get his versions of everything out. When it comes to him only himself, and what he wants matters.

"Like your third year. He got mad at Hermione here for caring about whether you lived or died, Harry, and all because of a stupid broom that would eventually lose it's popularity when something better came along. He didn't care if you got hurt – or if he got hurt, either – he only cared about the fact that a brand new broom would need to be stripped in order to make sure it was safe. Hell, if you had died, what would have him angry was that someone dared to curse the broom, not that you were dead. And, even worse, he never apologized and took the first chance at keeping you isolated from Harry he could. You see, Crookshanks could not get back into that dorm after Ron almost kicked him and was seen by one of the other seventh years, who spelled the dorm to keep him out. Ron knew this, so his blaming you for what happened to Scabbers at the time was simply because he liked having Harry all to himself, and knew that Harry would be on his side over yours – a fact you really should be ashamed of, Harry, because it shows that you really didn't value her as much of a friend as you should have, especially when you consider that she would anything to keep you alive, anything, even pissing you off because she'd rather you hate her than be dead.

"The worse thing Ron did that year was insisting that you leave the castle, Harry, especially after he'd almost been 'attacked' by Sirius. And you want to know something: he did it on purpose, hoping that you'd either get into trouble – he practically wet himself with glee when you did, but knew that if he didn't at least attempt to support you, he'd lose you as a friend – or that Sirius Black would come again, and he'd be able to capture him, wanting the prize money he imagined would come with And you went along with it because you not only really wanted too go, but a small part of you was excited to be breaking the rules. In my honest opinion, the guilt and shame you felt at Lupin's rightly said words were well deserved, because you truly did a stupid thing, flaunting your parents sacrifice in their faces for a bag of magic tricks.

"Fourth year was probably the first time Ron showed his true colors to you, when he didn't support you as a true friend does, like Hermione did. Of course, while a part of doing that was jealousy, most of it was because the school had pretty much turned against you, so he figured he had no reason to continue being friends with someone who was no longer famous. The fact that he immediately came running back to you, with a pathetic apology ready to sprout from his lips, the moment you stopped being the school leper should have told you that there was something up with it, but you were so excited to have your 'friend' back that you never bothered to notice this fact. And, you, Hermione, you were also so blind to his true nature. The fact that he let his jealousy get to the point of hurting Harry should have told you something. I know, you were just trying to be a good friend, but no true friend would ever do what Ron did to Harry. And – another example of just how Ron wasn't a friend – think about the differences in behavior between you three. Both you and Harry tend to try and med fences whenever one of you is estranged from your third friend, but the moment you and Harry became estranged over the broom incident, he only encouraged the estrangement.

"Fifth year... well, that was the only year he appeared to be a real friend by sticking to you – but then, the fact that his family was doing so was a big contribute to that, that and the fact that he was still at school, and, therefore, still likely to be on the pranking end of the twins if he said what he truly thought. As for him going to the Ministry with you, he was hoping that he'd be able to become famous over that – of course, his involvement was so minimal that it didn't even make a footnote, which pissed him off pretty well.

"As for six year, well, other than suspecting what his mother and Ginny – in case your wondering, Molly knew exactly what was going on, and even helped make the potions Ginny used on you two – Ron really didn't do anything, other than use his newly founded hormones to make sure that the potion had some annumission to fuel it. He also agreed, whole-heartedly, with their plans, and was the one who suggested doing the potion to make you two not be so friendly with each other. Since none of them liked the fact that you two were so close – Molly wanted a big Weasley family, so long as she handpicked out the members herself; Ron did not want to be second best to you, as he was in everything else; and Ginny was not only obsessed with becoming Mrs. Harry Potter, but with the fame, prestige, and influence she was more than sure would come with it.

"And then there was the hunt, where Ron pretty much made sure everything you ate was mixed with the potions. However, that's not the main problem. No, the main problem I have is how in hell did you not realized his unsuitability then. I mean, all three of you were affected by the locket, yet he was so affected by it that he was willing to break whatever bit of friendship he had with you, and leave because it got too hard – definitely not the actions of Gryffindor, based on what's said about them. He left, after doing what he could to convince Hermione here to leave with him and getting pissy when you didn't – and making him wonder how it was that the potions weren't working on you, since you should have jumped at a chance to go with him."

"I wasn't eating as much as I should have," Hermione said. "Truthfully, most of my food was given to him."

"And, since those potions used were keyed, they didn't work on him, so they didn't effect him, which is why you probably didn't realize that there was something strange going on. Anyway, what really bothered me was that you never bothered to think about hiding out in the Muggle world. You had the money, you two. Wouldn't even need to exchange it at Gringotts – just use one of the Galleons at a pawn shop, and you would have had plenty of money to set yourself up in any Muggle hostel, as well as get some more, non-tainted food. It would have been the better idea, rather than continuing going around in the tent as you did," Tryst said. "And without Ron there, you wouldn't have had to worry about people looking at you strangely – you both lived in the Muggle world a good portion of your life, you could act like you belonged there quite easily.

"Then, you did the worst thing you could do to yourself – you took that walking stomach back."

"He'd just saved my life!" Harry exclaimed.

"Oh, right, I'm sorry. He did that one thing, something that wasn't even completely serious, and he was accepted right back into the fold. The only reason why it seemed serious was because you had been a stupid idiot. If he hadn't arrived, the sword would have save you itself – it didn't land there itself, after all, it was put there by Snape, in hopes that something would happen to one of you. And if you had remembered to take off the locket like you should have, then you wouldn't have had much trouble in the first place.

"Plus, let's not forget that, while you two were beginning to starve because the walking stomach had ate most your food to before leaving, as well as cold, lacking in sleep, and having to deal with watching your every step, he was sleeping in a nice warm bed, with all the food he wanted to eat, and not having to worry about moving a whole lot. Truthfully, he lied to you – every time he couldn't find you, he back to his brother's house, and stayed there. Despite what he told you, he didn't wander around that long looking for you – in fact, he got lucky with you, Harry, and had been about to go back.

"Besides, the moment he was back, he spiked both of you with the potions, which his sister delivered to him with instructions from his mother. Having been gone as he had been, without him there to do it to begin with, you both were beginning to naturally flush the potions out of your system. Part of the reason why he even came back was because his mother needed someone there to keep you to potioned up. Plus, when you got caught and taken to the Malfoy's place, are you aware of the fact that his just calling Hermione's name and not helping try and get out was because he was hoping she'd be broken under the curse. He was still pissed at her for not going with him as he believed she should. In his mind, you being curse was only proper, because a Mudblood like you should have known your place when he demanded you go with.

"As for his 'moment of insightfulness' with the house elves, he actually was thinking about telling them that they needed to fight. He just happened to chose his words well enough for you to misinterpret them, and you kissed him before he could finish – the potion at work, I suppose.

"That said, even without that evidence, you need to remember what happened with the locket, when it told you his heart's desire, Harry. No, wait, lets go back further, to your first year, when you ran into the Mirror of Erised. Remember what he saw then?"

Hermione, having never actually been told about either event, looked over to him, wondering what had been hidden from her. Seeing her look, Harry frowned, wondering if he could avoid answering this. His hopes were dashed when he saw the look on Tryst's face.

"Come on, tell us what happened," Tryst said, making it clear that he wasn't going to get away with not doing so, and that it had to be him who said it. Harry sighed, before looking at Hermione once again.

"Before he destroyed it, Riddle's soul attempted to undermine him. The soul fragment mentioned how he was always second best, from his mother who had wanted a daughter, and then how he was second best to me, because...because the girl he wanted preferred me over him. Then, Riddle came out and you and me, talking down to him, saying that we didn't want him back and that it was presumptuous of him to assume that we did, right before the riddle versions of us started kissing," Harry explained. "For a moment there, I thought that the locket would take over him, make him kill me. I mean, I saw his eyes flash red, but then...he stabbed the locket right then, and I kind of forgot about it."

Hermione blinked at him.

"Okay, so you heard it mention how he was second best in two occasions, yet didn't think it was important to tell me what had happened, particularly that bit?" Hermione asked him, frowning.

"I didn't think it was important," Harry said.

"Harry, the fact that it mentioned his family right before mentioning me and you was a bit of a hint in how he mostly sees himself. And, honestly, it's not like it's all that untrue. He was practically pushed aside, raised by the twins, the moment Mrs. Weasley had Ginevra, whom we both know was spoiled by all the attention – we've seen signs of that spoiled attitude, too. In fact, having seen that, I wonder how it is that we could have ignored the fact that Mrs. Weasley would have given Ginny whatever she wanted, no matter what she had to do to acquire it.

"But, that's not the topic of discussion. No, what is, is the fact that Ron saw himself as second best, in his family's eyes, as well as the world at large – for, though the locket didn't say it straight up, when it compared him to you, it was probably doing so in a way that was made it clear that it wasn't just me who thought that way, but the rest of the world as well. And that right there is very telling, because it says that he didn't want me, not really. What he wanted was someone who wanted him over you, someone whom he probably thought you wanted as well. After all, with how close we are – even though we were never like that, you have to admit that, to the rest of the world, it would appear to be as if we were with the way we acted sometimes – it makes sense that he would think the same thing as everyone else," Hermione said, breathing a bit heavily after saying that.

"Exactly," Tryst chimed in. "He really didn't value Hermione as anything more than a nuisance, until he noticed how close you were to her, and that was when he decided that he would make sure he got her over you. But it wasn't because he loved, or even cared, about her. It was because, to him, she was a prize to be won between you two. He only wanted her because he thought that you wanted her. He never got the idea that you only saw each other as family."

"What about the mirror? What happened there?" Hermione asked Harry. Harry thought back to their first year, his words starting out haltingly, but growing stronger as he remembered them.

"He...he saw him...himself as...both head boy and Quidditch captain," Harry explained, realization coming through him. "He saw himself as what he considered to be better than his brothers..." Dumbledore's words of how he described Ron's desire came back to him. "He saw himself standing above his brothers the best of them all..."

"Yes, that was what he wanted. But what did he actually really do to get it?" Tryst asked, after seeing that Hermione really had nothing to say to that. "In truth, he did absolutely nothing for any of it. He never once actually tried to apply himself to anything, except chess and knowing pointless facts about Quidditch, the only things he really even cared about other than himself. He only even became and stayed a prefect because of Dumbledore, who didn't want his 'replacement hero' in the spotlight, and who wanted to reward one of his followers with the exalted position. If he had been around, he most likely would have put pressure of McGonagall to give Ron the Head Boy placement as well – as it was, he actually was beyond pissed when you were given the position of Quidditch Captain, as he had wanted Ron to have that as well, knowing the boy would enjoy it. McGonagall used the fact that, by the rules themselves, as there were senior members on the team, they were the ones who had to be considered first. Since, by all right, Katie should have gotten the position, he couldn't even accuse her of trying to use favoritism – and, though she didn't act like it, you were one of her favorites, Harry, you and Hermione here.

"Then there was the fact that, even when you tried to help him out, Hermione, he would always shoot your help down with rude and hurtful comments, making it seem as though wanting to do what you were was wrong and that you were a stupid idiot for even suggesting that he should work on his homework. The only time he wasn't like that was at the last minute, where he'd have you do the work for him – and, unfortunately, you kind of did because you couldn't stand him having the wrong answers, something he learned very quickly.

"And it wasn't just Hermione he would shoot down. Anyone who tried to help got shot down, and, when they did better than him, he would put them down, in whatever it was that they did. Like that first year, when he purposely threw the fact that you didn't really have friends in your face, because you were able to do the spell better than anything he'd ever be able to do, or in fourth year, when he made fun of Neville when Neville asked you to the dance, just because he didn't have the guts to do it himself. You, Hermione, just happened to be the main target of his abuse, mostly because you were always outshining him, as well as he knew you were so much better than him in general.

"Everything he has ever said in abuse to you, Hermione, was said to make you feel worthless, so that you would accept him.

"Now tell me, Hermione, is that the sign of a good friend?

"As for you, Harry, in all honest truth, you're lack of friends was due to him threatening to harm others who tried to become your friend. Is that a sign of a good friend?

"Is that the kind of friend you want?"

The two didn't have to think, automatically shaking their head, the evidence of the truth about Ronald Weasley going over and over in their minds.

"Now, truthfully, I've gotten off point, but I had to say that, because what I'm about to inform you of next is of the utmost importance, so important that certain people should never get this news, though I will approve of certain others getting this news, if asked about them first," Tryst told them, and they immediately seem to straighten in their chairs.

"Voldemort's dead now, but at what cost? Thanks to Dumbledore, what did this war cost?" Tryst asked them. The two looked at each other, before looking back at her. Harry suddenly had an image of the scene in the great hall, the morning he'd woken up after the final battle.

"A lot of innocent lives," Harry murmured, his guilt over having been unable to save those people clear in his voice.

"Exactly," Tryst said.

"But you already knew that fact," Hermione injected. "There's nothing we can really do about it. I mean...is there... What can we do about that?" Hermione seemed to have realized that, whatever the reason for them being there, it had something to do with what Tryst had just mentioned.

"Quite a bit, should you chose to accept what I'm offering. I can't force you, so I can only offer this: if you had the chance to change the outcome of what happened in the past seven years, would you? Would you, if given the chance, change everything so that innocents do not die before they are really meant to, and that the right people are punished, as they should have been to begin with? Would you go back, knowing that you would have to take orders from me, that you would have to do things you wouldn't have done before, in order to prevent a repeat of the death of those innocents?"

Hermione and Harry didn't blurt out an answer immediately, knowing that they had to think about this. They were silent for several minutes, looking towards each other, unsure of what to do when they couldn't come to a decision on their own. Almost at once, they saw the great hall scene again, the broken bodies of students murdered, friends of theirs, or people they just knew on sight. They knew what their answer would be then.

"Yes," Hermione stated.

"We will," Harry finished. Tryst smiled in triumph.

"Excellent," she stated, her victory of getting them to agree evident in her voice. "Now then, for what you're going to be doing. You're going to be sent back as agents of mine, as reapers, because it's the only way you can go back. And we will be sending you back to the beginning, before this whole mess even started. As you will have to follow my orders, there will be a direct line to me – or Helena, though mostly me – in your thoughts. You will also be able to get a hold of each other should you need to be able to. It will probably be a little disconcerting, but you'll get use to it. You will, in order to keep the secrets of the future from those who may attempt to discover them, be given an automatic occlumency protection, one that will never be breachable. For those you tell, they too will be given the protection as well, though that is the full extent of what they will receive.

"You will have to act as a true Slytherin – not what you saw in school, but the way the sorting hat tells you the house is supposed to be like. Even though you know things about certain people, you cannot act like a Gryffindor about it, for that will draw attention you cannot have to you. You will have to act ignorant about certain things – though, remember, you can console yourself with the fact that you will be able to do something about them when the time comes.

"Also, remember, Ron, Ginevra, Molly, and Dumbledore are not to be trusted. Forge friendships outside of whatever house you end up in. Be willing to ask help from others should you need it. Be prepared for what my orders are, and do not worry about certain things when you go to carry them out.

"And now, for certain bits of advice. Hermione, the first chance you get, go back to Gringotts, and pay to have a inheritance blood test done. They only two Knuts to have done, and they can show surprising information about yourself that you will need. Once the inheritance test is done, I will instruct you on what to do then. Harry, first chance you get, go back to Diagon Alley without Hagrid, and get more of everything, but mostly books. Take the inheritance test as well, but don't expect results like Hermione's. Instead, ask to speak to your accounts manager when you get there, and take your house lordship.

"Finally, Hermione, I suggest, once you have the inheritance test done with, you spend as much time with your parents, and pack everything of yours before you leave for Hogwarts, because you will not go back there once you get onto the Hogwarts Express. I know that it might seem cruel, but it is necessary that you not need them interfering with certain things.

"Harry, we will be putting the horcrux back into your head. This will be a way for you to spy on Voldemort once he has his body back – and, unfortunately, he will get it back, for that has to happen. You can also think of it as a 'get out of the Killing Curse free' card, though, being as you will be working for me once you are assembled back there, you won't have to worry about needing that, for the Killing Curse will not harm either of you again – a bonus to working for me, even after you've done what's needed and are free of me.

"I do believe that is all you need to know at the moment," Tryst said, standing up. She looked over at Helena, who stepped back forward.

"When you finally meet your soul mates, you will end up with a connection much like the one you will have with us and each other, only ten times stronger," Helena said. "And all of these connections will protect your mind from a multitude of things, such as mind-altering spells and potions. As for who you're soul mates are, you will have to find that out for yourselves."

"Oh, the bags you two have now," Tryst said, pointing to them. "They will stay with you, and only be visible to your eyes, as will their contents. However, there is more in them than what you've placed in them already – in fact, you will find even more information from books you will have never heard about, no matter were you went. I also suggest that you each get a trunk that can function as living quarters, a pair that can connect to each other. You'll need them. Make sure, when you go for them, you get one with a very good size apartment – make sure there are more rooms, and a lot of special features to them."

"Good luck, you two," Helena said, waving as gray mist began to cover them.

"Don't forget about the fact that I will be able to contact you two," Tryst said to them, as they disappeared. The two goddess were silent for a moment, minds concentrating to make sure the two arrived when they were supposed to be. Then, Helena turned to Tryst, her smiling face slipping as worry took over.

"Do you think that they can do it?" she asked. Tryst nodded her head.

"They're the only ones who can," she said.


	2. August 1st - 3rd, 1991

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **  
> _Yes, I am aware that this story is going slowly, in both updates and events, but this story actually is going to be pretty slow, not just in updates, but in events that happen within it. That said, I am going to be making each chapter pretty long, so, hopefully, that'll make it worth waiting for another knew chapter._  
>  **

_August 1_ _ st _ _, 1991_

* * *

 

Harry didn't need to open his eyes to know that he wasn't at home. After all, the bed he slept in wasn't hard like where he was sleeping now – though what he had wrapped around him was very nice and warm. It still didn't explain his whereabouts at the moment, though. It wasn't until he heard a _scratch, scratch, scratch_ at the window, and saw a slight familiar blur when he opened his eyes

_The hut by the sea_ he thought to himself, remembering when he finally got his Hogwarts letter after a rather ridiculous attempt by his worthless family to keep him from getting it – a rather useless thing, as was his uncle's attempt to keep him from the school, since, as Harry had learned in the last few months, they didn't have any say over it, and it wasn't because they were Muggles (though that would have played in the deal as well). No, it was because Harry's parents had already signed him up for the school to begin with, and their wants were the first and foremost say in anything, even dead. Only it he himself had said no – or hadn't been magical – would he have not gone to Hogwarts.

_But what's going on right now_ Harry thought, struggling to remember what had happened next. The scratching sound seemed to grow louder, interrupting his thought process. _Why am I here?_

" _The owl_." came to his mind, and, not really wondering about why he was hearing a voice that wasn't his own in his head, he sat up, his eyes immediately seeing the owl that the voice had just told him about. He then remembered what had happened before, realizing hat he was back to the day he first met Hagrid, gotten his letter, and was going to go to Diagon Alley, which drove the unknown voice from his head completely.

" _Harry? Harry, are you there?_ " he heard Hermione suddenly as in his mind, and then the events of the last...well, event, ran through Harry's mind.

" _I'm here,"_ he thought to Hermione as he stood up, Hagrid's coat – _so that's what that warmth was_ – falling off of him.

" _This feel as strange to you as it is to me?_ " Hermione asked him, and he sent an affirmative as he opened the window for the owl, like he'd done before. Just as before as well, the owl swooped in, dropped the paper on Hagrid, and then began attacking his coat. Harry almost immediately went to pay him, only to then remember that – with Hermione's help, who just somehow seemed to know, even though he'd never told her – he wasn't actually supposed to know how to pay the owl.

"Um, Hagrid, there's as owl attacking your coat," he said.

"Pay 'em," Hagrid grunted from the couch.

"What?" Harry asked.

"He wants paying. Look in the pockets."

He pulled out the Knuts he had already separated from the group, making them jingle in his hand.

"Pay him five Knuts," said Hagrid.

"Knuts?" Harry asked.

"The little bronze ones," Hagrid said, and it was at that moment that Harry realized something he hadn't before - Hagrid didn't sound asleep, though, when Harry looked behind he, Hagrid looked it. _He did this so that I would have a little taste of wizarding money_ Harry realized, a small smile on his face showing that he was appreciative of the fact. It meant that he didn't look quite like an idiot the first time he had to pay for something in the wizarding world, after all.

Harry shuffled the money around, holding out his hand towards the owl, and putting it into the pouch tied around it's leg. Just like before, the owl took off after it had been paid, and Hagrid got up, mentioning that they had a lot to do, and Harry made mention of his lack of money, where Hagrid then informed Harry about Gringotts. Harry had to keep from grimacing at the mention of the bank he ended up robbing seven years into the future…then remember that he and Hermione now had the chance to change it so that they didn't have to do that.

Harry's and Hagrid's conversation continued as it did originally, and Harry met Draco and Quirrell, who he had a hard time not glaring at; got Hedwig and his holly wand, as well as quite a number of books – he managed to get Hagrid to let him buy them after mentioning that it would help him in learning more about the world he was going to be entering soon – thus fulfilling a part of Tryst's instructions for him to get more books. All throughout this, of course, was Hermione was telling him which books they would need him to buy. In order to keep Hagrid from realizing that Harry wasn't just getting history books – which Hagrid had agreed for him to get, but nothing else – he had decided to let Hagrid get his basic potion ingredients while he bought the extra books, most of them on either Defense Against the Dark Arts or potions.

Harry and Hermione decided early on to focus mostly on those two subjects, though they weren't going to not focus on Charms or Transfiguration either. They just decided to do these two right now, and get the books for the others next summer. Harry got the books he already knew he needed for the next few school years as well, though he only did it because he didn't know if his first set of books had been put into the bags – he would find out later. He paid around two hundred Galleons for the lot of the books.

Hagrid didn't really seem notice the fact that Harry had too many bags for a few extra history books, despite the fact that he carry the bags out of Diagon Alley as they left. As Harry had done the first time, he mentioned his fears while Hagrid fed them, feeling glad to know Hagrid when he, instead of just brushing them aside, reassured Harry, as he had done the first time around. Then, he walked Harry over to the train, handing handing Harry an envelope that Harry already knew had the Hogwarts train ticket within. Still, to hide this fact, knowing that he would need to ask his question, Harry quickly opened it, questioning Hagrid about the platform number after reading it, ensuring that he would have that information so as to avoid meeting the Weasleys.

" _Looks like I have no need to meet the Weasleys quite yet_ ," Harry said to Hermione as he got back to the Dursleys. They weren't there yet – he remembered that they didn't get back until three days later, as those three days had been some of the best in his life, despite the fact that he had been left alone. He remembered what he had done the first time around, after getting into the house: he played quite a few games with Dudley's things, retreating to his books only when they'd come back.

This time, however, he chose to go through all of the books he had gotten, not just the ones he'd bought, but the ones he'd had in the bags at his waist (which were still there, to his surprise), placing all those that weren't required into one of the bags while switching out the books in one bag and placing them in the other – that way, the new books he had gotten weren't mixed up with those from the Black library. He was a bit glad that none of the books in the bags were the ones that he had needed for school, as he would have hated having two sets around for no reason.

" _So, Hermione, when did you go to Diagon Alley?_ " Harry asked as he worked on the books.

" _I went there when Professor McGonagall came to me,_ " he said. " _So, of course, unlike you, I don't have a chance to get anything new._ "

Harry nodded his head.

_"Don't worry. I grabbed an extra copy of certain books for you_ ," he said, and she squealed a bit with happiness at hearing that. _"Hey, quick question: do you still have you set of course books from when we were at the school?"_

_"No,"_ she stated, sounding depressed because of it. _"I went through all of the books in the bags I had, and I don't have any books but what was bought when I went to Diagon Alley, as well as what I was going through back in the Black library."_

_"Oh, good,"_ Harry stated. _"I was afraid I had gotten two copies of some of these books for no good reason."_

The squeal Hermione let out at that had him smiling at her.

_"How far did you go?"_ she asked him.

_"I got all the course books I could remember for our classes in the main courses, as well as what I remember you having for Arithmacy and Ancient Runes. The only ones I didn't get were the ones for our second and fifth years of DADA, since there is no way I will touch Lockhart's books this time around, and I'm hoping that we can avoid having Umbitch as a teacher this time around."_

He didn't mention the fact that he had no willingness to let Umbridge live for much longer, and, while he would have frozen at the thought of killing her in seemingly cold blood murder, or not preventing her death in the past, now, he only felt a calm resolve for it. Truthfully, while he knew that a bit of this resolve came from what 'benefits' he was given for agreeing to go to the past, a bit of it was for the fact that Umbridge didn't deserve any second chance for redemption. Her actions, from when she entered the Ministry, when she was a Professor, when she became Headmistress, and during the war, all said the truth - there was no chance of her being willing to accept redemption, so their was no point in wasting it on her.

Still, Harry didn't mention this to Hermione, not realizing that one, she, always having been able to read him quite well, already knew this fact; and two, she actually agreed with him as well, having thoughts of that herself. So, instead of continuing on that subject, they, without problem, switched to another topic, Harry still packing up his things. It was as he was packing, his arms and body tired from the lifting of all the books and the bending to place them neatly into his new trunk, that he began wishing that he could use magic to do it. He didn't realize that, having gotten used to using it, just how much he had taken of for granted until he was restricted from using it.

“ _Oh, go ahead and use it_ ,” he suddenly heard in his mind. He was startled upon hearing that, for he immediately knew that it hadn't been Hermione who'd spoken. The voice was too cold to have been Hermione's. Yet, while not as familiar as Hermione's, at he same time, there was a familiarity towards it.

“ _Tryst?”_ he mentally asked, reaching out for the cold voice.

“ _Yes. Remember, I told you that you and Hermione would be able to hear me this way before you left,”_ Tryst said, and Harry sheepishly scratched his head as he remembered her saying that. It had completely slipped his mind, though, due to the disorientation he'd felt upon waking up that morning.

“ _A side effect of being thrown through time_ ,” Tryst said, and he unconsciously nodded his head. _“Oh, and good job on getting more books, even with Hagrid there. While I didn't want him to be there when you did it, you still managed to get a good amount of books needed without questions being asked. Of course,without him there to actually have seen what you got, it makes sense that he wouldn't ask. And, this way, if he should mention it to Dumbledore, you having books about the world your joining in makes sense, which will keep Dumbledore from being suspicious of you._

“ _Anyway, go ahead and use your magic. Being under my orders allows you to be able to do some thing that you normally wouldn't. Besides, technically, you can use your magic up until next year, though, in this case, you can use your magic whenever you wish to.”_

“ _But what about the trace?”_ Harry asked.

“ _Technically, it doesn't exist,”_ Tryst said and both her and Hermione – who, it seemed, was listening in – exclaimed, _“What?”_

“ _Yeah,”_ Tryst said. _“The trace is nothing more than a way to keep people – more importantly, Muggleborms – from practicing magic. Truthfully, the Ministry has ward stones all over England, ones that catch any magic done in all. The ward stones are in sets of twenty-one, each set encompassing about forty miles, an area of sixteen hundred square feet. Now, each set is laid out to not cross into the ward space of another, but right next to each other so that nothing is missed. When magic is done, where it's done at is checked.”_

“ _Wait a minute_ ,” Hermione said, suddenly getting what Tryst was saying. _“But that means that any magic done in full on wizarding areas or household are left alone, even if it's an underage wizard who does it.”_

“ _Exactly,”_ Tryst said. _“Like I said, it's nothing more than a way to control Muggleborns from being able to get really good at magic, unless they work hard at school. If magic is done in an area where a lot of magicals live, specifically a house or property where magicals live, it's considered to have been done by the parents, and no warning is ever sent, even if it wasn't the parents. How do you think the pureblood fanatics could ever learn their dark arts without having such an advantage?”_

“ _I never actually thought about it,”_ Hermione said.

“ _But what if the parents are dead?”_ Harry asked.

“ _Doesn't matter. If the property is listed as being the home of a magical, then the person living there can do whatever, especially since the ministry would know that the property is magic and that magicals rarely give up their property to the non-magical world – even if every member of the family is dead, the property stays in the name of magicals. Even if it's well known that the parents are dead, any magic done there is ignored,”_ Tryst said. _“The only exception to this for magical houses in Muggle areas are ones that are warded with Unplottable spells, as well as the Fidelius, as that particular ward-spell makes it so that any magic done in that specific area can't be felt, because, as you know, the idea of the Fidelius is to hide the people there. Can't hide them if the Ministry can find them, you know?”_

“ _I take it that this ward setting is how they knew about Dobby doing his hovering charm, and how they knew about me doing the Patronus spell,”_ Harry said.

“ _Yes,”_ Tryst told him. _“Of course, that gets us back to the point I was trying to get to. Because you came back in my employment, the normal rules of magical society actually don't encompass you. This, of course, means that the rules of not doing magic until you're of age doesn't concern you because I'm blocking the ward stones from realizing that you're actually doing magic, so you can do any of the spells you know. Now, I will tell you right now that the reason for doing this isn't so you can use magic to make things easier for yourself, but so that you can learn what spells I tell you, as well as what spells you see in your books._

“ _Which, by the way, Harry, while you did get a good selection of extra books, you still more, ones that you will not find in Flourish and Blotts, so you'll need to go back to Diagon Alley. Now, I presume that you still know how to apparate, you two?”_

The two mentally sent images of them nodding their heads.

“ _Good,”_ Tryst said. _“You're going to be needing it. In fact, stop packing, the both of you. You're going to be heading to Diagon Alley instead.”_

“ _But won't people wonder why we can apparate? And won't people recognize me?”_ Harry asked, Hermione sharing in his worry.

“ _Nope,”_ Tryst said. _“As this is your first order from me, how you look to others will be different compared to how you actually look. Hermione, what people will see when they look at you is this.”_

An image appeared in their minds, and Hermione's eyes widened as she saw what she would be looking like. The woman was taller and skinnier that Hermione actually was, with dark brown hair that fell stick straight to her mid back. Her eyes were blue, lips light pink, and her skin was pale. The clothing she wore – _“Will I actually have to wear what she's wearing?”_ Hermione asked, the answer of which was “ _Yes, this is what you will appear to be wearing when you go”_ – was something that Hermione had never though she'd wear: a dark red top that had a sweetheart neckline, off the shoulder sleeves that were loosely laced up, and corset style lacing on the front, going from the hem to just under the bust; a short, red plaid skirt which also laced up in the front, from the top to about three inches down, went to mid-thigh, and showed off a lot of her legs; black and red striped, thigh high socks with a tiny red bow at the top, which didn't come close to touching the skirt; black knee high boots with a very high heel, accentuated by the two inch platforms which just increased the height, and had the design of red flames on them; and, over it all, a black duster, which looked a bit like robes, only made of leather and looking more bad ass than anything.

“ _Wow, Hermione,”_ Harry said. _“You look as though anyone who messes with you will regret it.”_

“ _Which is the look she needs,”_ Tryst said. “ _As for you, Harry, here's how you look.”_

Another image appeared, and Harry's mouth dropped when he saw what he'd be looking like. The guy in front of him had dirty blond hair to his shoulders, tanned skin, blue eyes, and a scar going down from mid forehead to just under his right eye, positioned just a few milimeters from the outer corner of his right eye. He had slightly angular features, was about three inches taller than Hermione's fake form – even with her having the boots on – and pretty muscular. The clothing he was wear was a black T-shirt which was pretty tight on him, dark jeans, black sneakers, and a black duster. To give him a little bit of color, though, he had on a red button down shirt, which was unbuttoned in the vision, showing off the tight black shirt which accentuated his muscles to anyone who cared to look.

“ _Looks like I'm not the only one who looks bad arse,”_ Hermione told him, a smile clearly heard in her voice.

“ _Yes, well, the more bad arse, as you put it, you look, the less chance of someone bugging you,”_ Tryst told them. “ _Now, the goblins will be able to see both sides of you, but, because it's my magic causing the disguise, they won't cause you any problems. It'll be the same for any creature that sees you when doing something for me, and that can see past disguises, through natural or unnatural means. The Goblins have an unnatural means of doing it by the Thief's Downfall waterfall, as well as a few enchantments on all doorways and window tellers, though none of those ones can detect Polyjuice Potion transformations. So, they will notice your tranformed selves, but they will also notice that the magic doing it is mine, and unless they wish to piss off a god, they will not have any problem.”_

“ _Wait, does this mean...”_ Hermione began to ask.

“ _As you will need to get into Bellatrix's vault for the cup – though, I will have you go there for more than just that – they will help you, even if you do not have the key or you are not Bellatrix. Don't worry, though, I won't have you make them feel as though they're breaking their honor by letting you steal. There is actually a very easy way for you, Hermione, to get into the vault, and I'll instruct you on what you need to do when you get there,”_ Tryst said.

“ _Understood,”_ Hermione said, and it was quiet once again as Harry used a quick packing spell to clean his room. Another thought came to him as he did this.

“ _How was it that Tonks and the witches and wizards who came to get me that summer after fourth year didn't set off any alarms when they did so?_ ” he suddenly asked.

“ _They had several ministry employees with them when they came to pick you up, ones who were very well versed about this,”_ Tryst said. “ _They knew exactly how to find one of the ward stones and disrupt it without a problem so that they could get you out. They didn't leave it like that, though, because they wanted warning should someone try to attack you there, which only increased after the Dementor episode. As it was they hadn't told anyone because one, they knew what Ronald would do knowing he could use magic whenever he wanted – and same with Ginevra – two, Molly would'vet had a fit over it, and none of them wanted to become deaf because she would never have shut up about it; and three, Dumbledore convinced them that telling you or keeping the disruption there wouldn't do you any good._

“ _Truthfully, though, Dumbledore just didn't want you to be able to become good at magic if you had suddenly decided to apply yourself. Plus, knowing how badly your relationship was with your family, he didn't want you to have much of a way to defend yourself. Bastard.”_

There were some chuckles at that, from both of them, for, between what they'd been told, and thinking about it themselves, the two realized that the word did go well with Dumbledore.

“ _All right, now get going. Oh, don't forget to grab some money, particularly two Knuts. Remember, you're going to be taking the inheritance tests as well,”_ Tryst said, and Harry unconsciously nodded his head, grabbing his wand and money, and then, turning on the spot, a sharp crack being heard as he apparated away.

* * *

 

Harry met Hermione right outside the Alley entrance, just behind the pub, where all apparations appeared when going to the Alley. Harry let Hermione open the gate, and the two began walking down the alley, heading straight for the back. Harry noticed that quite a few people were doing their best to stay out of their way upon catching sight of the two, and he mentally said to Hermione, “ _Wow, now this is a feeling I could get used to; instead of people flocking to me, they do their best to get away from me.”_

“ _Unfortunately, you can't be this way all the time,”_ Hermione reminded him, and he pouted mentally at the reminder. They made their way unhindered to the bank, seeing the eyes of the goblin at the door widen as they passed through the door – they weren't sure what to think of that – and making their way to a free goblin. Before they got to one, however, another goblin hurried forward, eyes just as wide as the goblin at the door had been.

“ _Um, what's going on?”_ Harry asked, feeling as though there was something wrong.

“ _Don't worry about it. It's been a while since goblins have seen the gods interfere as I have done, so they're both worried and honored to be able to live through a time,”_ Tryst explained, while the goblin that was heading toward them bowed slightly in front of them.

“Ma'am and Sir, if you will follow me. The chief will be taking care of any business you have with us,” he said, leading them away from the glistening front hall and to the chief's office. Harry and Hermione looked at each other as they followed him, barely noticing the interested and somewhat hostile looks sent their way by those who were waiting in line to be able to get to their vaults – the most hostile coming from pure-blood bigots who were there, of course.

“ _What's going on now?”_ Hermione asked, genuinely curious as opposed to being worried.

“ _You're being led to the goblin chief, as, considering who you are in the service of, you only get to deal with the best. He will be the one to take care of everything here at the bank for you, so long as you need him,”_ Tryst said. _“While you, Harry, will still need to speak to your Gringotts' account manager in order to know what's with your vault as well as gain your Lordship, everything else can be taken through him, like the inheritance test and figuring certain things out, though of course, your account manager can take care of everything for you as well – it's really only Hermione who will need to do everything from the goblin chief. Just listen to my instructions on what to do, and you'll be fine.”_

“ _Got it,”_ the two said, just as they entered a rather large office. They were led straight to the desk, where a goblin that looked much like a warrior sat.

“ _Bow your head lightly, enough to show respect,”_ Tryst instructed them. They did as she said, receiving the same in return from the Goblin in front of them.

“ _Now, wait for him to greet you, then return the greeting,”_ she said, telling them what to say, which was in Gobblygook. It took a few mental tries for them to say it, but, by the time they were to speak it, they had it perfectly, saying it as though they always said it. The Goblin nodded his head, then asked, “And how may I help the God's servants?”

“ _Hermione, tell him you wish to take an inheritance test, while Harry, you tell him you need to speak to your account manager,”_ Tryst said. _“Harry, you go first, then, once Harry leaves, Hermione, you tell him what it is that you need.”_

“I need to speak to my account manager,” Harry said, not saying who it was, since he didn't know the manager's name. The Goblin nodded his head, and then pressed a button on his desk, speaking the name Dirmirk into it. A few moments later, another goblin entered the room, and, after a quick conversation in Gobblygook, the goblin turned, walking back out, Harry following after some prompting from Tryst.

Hermione, however, stayed in the room, waiting for the Goblin in front to acknowledge her, which he did once the door was closed. Once she was given the all clear to speak, she, as coached to do so by Tryst, said, “I wish to take an inheritance test.”

The Goblin nodded his head, and then stood up.

“Follow me,” he said, and she did so, being let to another chamber, were a silver dagger and spread out parchment were at. She looked curiously at the items, but didn't touch them.

“Payment,” the goblin said, and she handed him the two Knuts. He took them, and then instructed her on what to do. She held out her hand, palm up, above a little bowl at the edge of the parchment, managing not to wince as a good slice was made on her palm with the silver knife, blood pooling quickly in the cup her hand immediately made. She waited until she was turned to turn her hand over, letting the pooled blood flow into the bowl. Once the entire bottom was covered, she removed her hand, watching what was happening intently as her hand automatically began to heal itself.

Though not seen, there was a small hole on side of the bowl, at the bottom, where it faced the parchment, actually touching it. It was there here that her blood began to leave the bowl, moving slowly as the goblin chanted something. The blood, staining the parchment, began to moved into lines, like little streams, going all over, disconnecting from each other at certain points to make even more lines, over and over, until it hit the bottom of the parchment. Names began appearing, each name turning a different color and glowing with that color. Some of them glowed brighter than others, some of the colors went from one name to another without interruption, and the name from the starting position, at the head of the parchment, next to the bowl, glowed the brightest and was the only name in the color it was. And then the lines themselves did the same thing, turning different colors, though they only turned one or two different colors – some of the lines didn't even change to a different color.

Once it was done, Hermione looked at the parchment, trying to read it, but unable to do so.

“ _Why can't I read it?”_ she asked Tryst.

“ _Because it's still on the table,”_ Tryst explained. _“Where it will stay until your escort removes and hands it over. As it is, he's looking over it, making note of everything, for he's going to need to know to be able to make sure the other goblins know which vaults will need to be added to your account, as well as which vaults are reactivated and things like that.”_

“ _Why the different colors?”_ Hermione asked next.

“ _They symbolize the different things in your life. You are considered Muggleborn, it is true, because both of your parents are non-magical and everyone believes that you've never had a magic line, but, based on what we're seeing, the truth of the matter is you do have witches and wizards in you ancestry, as well as, surprisingly, a few other surprises,”_ Tryst said. _“I'll let the goblin explain the different colors to you. As for the lines, well, I'll let the goblin explain that as well.”_

“ _What about the one at the top of the parchment? Can you at least tell me why it's the only one that color?”_ she asked.

“ _It's your name, and the color is because you're in the service of one of the highest powers. The symbol at the end is my sign, telling the goblin that it's me specifically you're in the service of,”_ Tryst said, and then stopped speaking as the goblin cleared his throat.

“It seems, Reaper, that you have very prominent family lines, and not just of the wizarding world variety,” the goblin stated, taking the parchment from the table and handing it to her before going over and calling another goblin to the room, speaking in Gobblygook to him while Hermione surveyed her chart. Now that it was off the table and in her hands, she could read it, and she noticed that, in the top corner to the right of her name was a key of what each of the colors meant, for both names and lines. She was confused about two of them – why it would mention anything about Wiccan Witch or Faeling, she didn't know, but what she did know was that she wasn't the first witch in her family at all, on either side of it. Her great-grandparents on her mother's side of the family had been wizards, with a last name she recognized quite easily – after all, Black had been a prominent wizarding family name, though, in the time she came from, it no longer actually existed.

She continued following that line, her eyes widening quite often as she made several discoveries within first her mother's side of the family – aside from her relation to the Black family – and then within her father's side of the family. Among the discovery of being the true heir to several lines that had been believed to have gone out of existence, including the lines of several rather famous witches and wizards, she also discovered that she was the true heir of several families that did still have members alive – it seemed that, even if magic left a line for a while and wizardkind just moved onto the next line, the first line was always superior to any others, and the moment magic came back into the line, they were able to take their title as head of the line back, whether or not other members of the family line agreed with it. At least, that's what Hermione was getting from both the paper, as well as what Tryst was telling her.

“ _This is...incredible and yet completely strange to discover_ ,” Hermione mentally said, as she did her best to wrap her mind around all of this.

“ _I supposed, considering what you'd been told and how you've been treated in the last time line, that it would appear like that,”_ Tryst said. _“And yet, I am surprised to learn that you never wondered why it was that you had the ability to do magic when your parents couldn't at the same time. I mean, while you wouldn't have found any answers – while the Golbins have the most complete form of doing it, there are some spells that could have helped you figure it out, but all the books with those spells were banned from Hogwarts library, just as books on Occlumency were, when Dumbledore took the position as Deputy Headmaster – I would have still thought that you would have wondered about it.”_

“ _What do you mean that those books were banned?”_ Hermione asked.

“ _Just that: he banned books that could possible help elevate Muggleborns to what seemed to be a higher status, as well as give anyone an edge to keep him from seeing their thoughts. He also made it a school law that teachers weren't allowed to suggest Muggleborn students take inheritance tests. While he doesn't believe that any of the Muggleborns could actually ever have magical lines, much less lines of pretty prominent family, he also doesn't want to risk being discovered wrong, since, as law states, all of the votes for those houses go to the heirs, who automatically are the heads of the houses if they do not have any other magical family members in their immediate lines – as in parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, you get the idea._

“ _More than that, though, is the fact that, as a Hogwarts founder heir, you have direct control of things that happen at the school, such as wards, rules, teaching appointments, things like that. In fact, as you will no doubt find out soon, because you are a Hogwarts founder heir, two in fact, the Board of Governors will be learning that they are no longer needed, as they can only hold such a position so long as either the Heir allows them to, or there is no known Heir. With you having taken this test, you are a known Heir, and therefore, unless you allow them to stay in their position, they're no longer needed.”_

Hermione thought about this for a moment, seeing that the Goblin still wasn't done speaking to the other goblin, and let her mind wonder to who it was on the board of governors, wondering it was worth taking advantage of not needing them, or if she should use them. Unfortunately, she never bothered learning who was on it.

“ _The only important person you ever really needed to know was that Malfoy Senior had been on it, though he was voted out at the end of your second year,”_ Tryst said. _“That said, while not all supremacist, not one of those on the board is Muggleborn or half-blood, and not one really cares about the Muggleborns or half-bloods of the school. They only care about the pure-bloods – remember, this was the board that insisted that the school remain open up until it appeared as if Ginevra had been attacked. You're better off getting rid of them – you can put your own council in place if you don't think you can handle dealing with everything alone, though I would suggest that you make sure whoever you put in charge isn't a supremacist or a traditionalist – who, in truth, can be worse than a supremacist, since they will do anything to keep the way thing are going, going that way._

“ _Oh, and, when you get the chance, have certain portraits removed from Hogwarts. There are a few witches and wizards who managed to be hanged there that should have never been hung on the wall – particularly several Slytherins, who tend to make sure that whatever current Slytherins at the school remember to be nasty to 'the Mudbloods'.”_

“ _Will do,”_ Hermione said, slightly disgusted to know that there were portraits like that in Hogwarts to begin with; she wondered when they were put up, then figured that it had to have been when Phineus Black had been headmaster – he, while not as bad as several others, had shown himself to be a bit of bigot, and she could see him accepting other bigots to be allowed in the hollowed halls of Hogwarts. Of course, this made her wonder why other headmasters hadn't had them removed, but the fact that most of them probably hadn't known, or hadn't cared, was what she figured the answer to be.

Hermione wasn't able to ask Tryst if she was right about what she was thinking, though, for the goblin had finished speaking, and was now heading back to her. He didn't say anything, though, until they were back in his office.

“I've just order the vaults of your inheritances open for you to do with them as you wish. You may combine them into the same vault, if you wish, though, should you have many children, it might be best to leave then in separate vaults, so that if you bequeath the contents of one vault to one, and the contents of another vault to a different child, then all that would need to be done is that they receive the individual keys to those vaults. You will have a single key to all your vaults, and you will be given a list of what your vault numbers are,” the Goblin stated.

“Considering what two lines you are the heiress of, I myself will be taking care of those two vaults. The other vaults that you have will be taken care of my one of my senior Goblins,” the Goblin continued. “There is no fee for retaining a vault, unless it is a trust vault, in which there is a yearly fee paid at the beginning of the year, automatically, from whatever main vault is selected, while the vault itself is refilled as well. Trust vaults can only stay open for minors, and the money in them automatically reverts to whichever vault the payments came from upon the new year that the minor is seventeen in – as in, even if they have a birthday in mid-year, it will not be until the new year that the vault closes. While, as you can take headship of any of the family lines you are the heiress for, you have no need for a trust vault, opening one for another family member, or even a friend, is allowed.

“As the head of house for several families, it should be noted that, for any family member who actually carries the name, as well as any who marry into the family, you have the right to control their vaults, allowing audits to be performed, as well as taking money or items from them, along with placing money into the vaults.

“All the vaults of which you have just gained have been on low risk low reward since the family lines when the family lines went dormant, which, while giving a pretty low amount of monies to the vaults every year, have added up over the years, officially making you the richest witch in the Wizarding World. If you have wish to change the stock risks and rewards in any way, let myself or you're accountant – depending on which vault you wish to change – what the change is. Now, is there anything I can do for you about the le Fay and Emrys vaults at this moment?”

“ _Say no,”_ Tryst stated. _“Other than visiting them, you have no need to deal with them at the this moment. Nor do you want to change the risks and rewards at the moment, for you need to be a bit in tune with the stock market of both the magical and Muggle worlds before you do that. So, for now, he is not needed.”_

“No,” Hermione said, having the good sense to keep the not needed part to herself. The goblin nodded his head, and pressed a button on his desk.

“Krikirt,” he said, and it was silent for a few moments, before another goblin entered the room. The goblin – whose name, Hermione realized, she didn't know – spoke a bit in Gobblygook to this new goblin before turning back to her. “Krikirt is now your official accountant for the rest of your vaults. If you have any need for things to do with those vaults – or anything to do with any vaults of the families you are the head of house of – he is the one you speak to.”

“Understood,” Hermione said, having been prompted to speak by Tryst. Once that was said, the goblin gave her a customary Gobblygook farewell, which she promptly returned, before following her new accountant to his office. She stayed silent, again at Tryst's prompting, until the goblin in front of her had surveyed the parchment which she had the feeling held all the information for her vaults – and, as there were several of them, she had the feeling that the different rolls of parchment the goblin looked at were for the individual vaults, none of them actually put on the same roll of parchment, to show their separations.

Krikirt then looked at her.

“How may I help you today, Reaper?” he asked.

“I need an audit performed on all vaults within the Lestrange family,” Hermione said firmly. “All items within each vault are to be examined, and any of suspicious or dark magic need to be noted and then automatically destroyed. Any item of goblin make is to be returned to the goblins. For any vault that hold extremely dark magical items, they are to immediately be stripped of everything but thirty Sickles, as well as a letter of disownment from the family. If they married into the family, then the marriage is to be annulled in addition to the disownment.

“If any of the vaults belong to anyone who is known to be a marked Death Eater, even if they weren't convicted of it, they get the same punishment. Everything stripped from those vaults are to be put into the main one, with only the goblin make items and dark magic items being the exception. All books, even those that are of suspicious or dark magic, are to placed in the main vaults as well – those that are of suspicious, dark, or have harmful spells in them are to be noted and kept separated from the others.”

“Understood,” Krikirt said, a gleeful tone to his voice over the action. He already knew that there were quite a few family members that she was the head of that matched everything that was required for disownment and marriage annulment, and he himself, as well as those who would help him, would be happy to do all this for her, particularly since a good number of them were people who all goblins absolutely hated, because of the lack of respect they had for anyone not like themselves. As for the non-convicted Death Eaters, well, even if the Ministry was stupid enough not to be able to tell truth from fiction, the goblins were, so that wouldn't be a problem with them either. “I will personally get started on this as soon as possible. Is there anything else I can help you with, Reaper?”

“I have need to visit the Hart vault,” Hermione stated, deciding that she would get some more money out to do some book shopping, along with getting the trunk that Tryst had mentioned wanting her to get as well. The quiet approval from the Goddess of Death told her that this was the right action to do.

“Of course,” Krikirt said, hopping down from his desk, and going over to a red bowl. Hermione walked over with him, giving him her hand so that he could get some blood, which then formed into a silver key. He picked it up, handed it to her, and said, “This is the master key to all your vaults. Just present it to a goblin out front when you wish to visit a vault, as well as the name of which vault you want to visit. If you have multiple vaults to visit, the give all the names right then and there when you hand over the key.

“You will only need to see me if you have a wish to change certain things about each vault, or if you want another audit done on the vaults in your family lines. I will be owling you the results of the audit you've asked performed, as well as monthly statements for each vault I am the accountant for. If you have need to see me again, it is preferable that you make an appointment to do so at a convenient date, though you are allowed to just walk in and see me if I'm available.”

Hermione nodded, and then, after saying the customary Gobblygook farewell, left the room with another Goblin who'd been summoned to take her to the Hart vault. Inside, though she was tempted to go through them, she ignored all the items, going straight for the money, which she filled a spelled lightweight bag with before walking and exchange some of it for mundane money. Immediately after she did that, she left the bank, letting Harry know that she would either meet him at the trunk shop, book store, or Apparation point as she left.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, as Hermione was dealing with this, Harry had followed Dirmirk to an office, where he sat down in the an offered chair. Dirmirk and he then talked, Harry being told by Tryst what he'd need to be done. Once having gained his Lordship (which, to his surprise, automatically closed the vault he'd gone to earlier, which he was surprised to learn was actually his trust vault), as well as ordering an audit of his vaults along with an investigation to all cause of monies missing from the vault without his permission and having all payments to the Dursleys stopped with all money to be paid back with interest in the next year, he finally broached the subject of taking an inheritance test. Dirmirk nodded his head, not even seeming a bit surprised by the request, as Harry might have expected him to be.

“ _Why isn't he surprised?”_ Harry asked as he was led to another room (which, while set up the same way, actually wasn't the same one that Hermione had been taken too), being joined by the head Goblin moments later.

“ _Well, Goblins never show any surprise they have if they can help it, for one,”_ Tryst answered. _“However, being that you are a half-blood, if he suspects you having any reason to want to do this, it is because of the fact that your mother was a first generation magical, meaning that you want to see if there are any magical lines on her side. Of course, he could also suspect that you're doing this because you want to see if Potter is your only family line that you are the head of – the few purebloods that do these test do it in hopes of gaining another head of house title, and the vaults that go with it.”_

“ _Oh,”_ Harry said, mentally nodding his head. At least that meant that his request wasn't all that strange for them. After being told of how this would go, he handed over the two Knuts as his payment, and then held out his hand, much like Hermione had, not even flinching at the sudden pain as his palm was cut. Making a cup with his hand so that the blood would pool, he waited until it had pooled enough before turning and letting the blood first pour, then drip into the bowl his hand had been hovering above, joining with the dark red liquid that had slipped through the cracks between his fingers.

Harry was a bit fascinated by the way the lines and names began forming, watching as they worked, turning different colors, though not as many as Hermione's had – as he would find out later, both having decided to show off their 'family trees' after they were done with everything. After the head goblin spoke with his accountant, he then removed the parchment from the table, handing it to Harry, who was able to read it.

He wasn't surprised by some of the names he saw on there, seeing that, knowing that his father's side of the family had been pure-bloods, it meant that he'd have blood relations with quite a few other pure-blood families. What did surprise him, though, was the fact the Potter family lines weren't as pure as he'd been lead to believe, several half-bloods within, and at least two Muggleborns within it. He, as Hermione, were also curious about the Faelings and Wiccan Witches he saw in the family, usually showing up within the family lines that were half-blood or Muggleborn more than that of his full magical ancestors. Unfortunately, while he did have some new vaults to his name, there was only one name that really stood out to him – Helga Hufflepuff. He was surprised to know that he was related to that founder, particularly since, though he hadn't thought he was realized to any of them, he would have thought Godric would have been his ancestor, Godric or Salazar, mostly because they'd been the two houses that the Sorting Hat had considered/placed him in back in school.

As for the other names that he was now the head of house for, he supposed, if any of them were of extreme importance, Hermione would be able to find out. Or he could just ask Tryst later about it.

Once the head goblin was done, he followed Dirmirk out back to the accountant's office, where he learned that he was the new head of these vaults, as well as the fact that the keys would be combined into one main key. Once being told by Tryst not to do anything but visit and get some money from one of the vaults – any of them, as there was plenty of money in them all – and exchange some of it with mundane money, he did as directed, leaving the bank and heading to where Hermione was at, waiting for him in the trunk shop, having already found two trunks perfect for what they wanted and needed, which had been pointed out to her by the proprietor.

They were ebony wood trunks, carved along the top and sides, with a single silver lock that looked like a combination lock, but only with three major lines, in the middle of the front seam. The carvings on both differed from each other – the one Hermione wanted for her self resembled scenes the Mug-Mundane book series Chronicles of Narnia, mostly just that of how Narnia looked, from the time of the White Witch, transitioning to the time of the Golden Age (Hermione, having read the books, could see that the person who'd carved the trunk having been heavily inspired by the Narnia of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe over all); as for the other, the carvings on it were of animals and magical creatures, such as fauns, dragons, merepeople, lions, griffins, snakes... the list went on. Again, most of the creatures seemed shaped more like how Hermione always saw them looking like in Chronicles of Narnia – particularly the large lion on the middle of the trunk lid – but of the creatures that weren't Narnian-looking inspired, they were obviously real magical creature inspired.

“ _I want this one,”_ Harry said, pointing the magical creature carved trunk.

“ _Good, because I've already decided that this one's mine,”_ Hermione answered back, and the two took their selected trunks up to the front, where the matronly witch who ran the shop waited.

“Ah, you've chosen then, loves?” she said, her voice almost grandmotherly sounding. She smiled at the two of them, and then began going over the features of the two trunks. They came with automatic security systems, meaning that only they two could actually get into all compartments, once they'd set it up. Each compartment in of itself could have a different level of security as well. The first compartment was the standard school trunk compartment – same size and space as a normal school trunk, though made to be almost virtually weightless, as well as being completely only for school supplies and books. The second compartment was a small wardrobe compartment, which would actually fold up outwardly to displace a rod complete with hangers. The first two compartments were mainly for school use, the witch stated. The final compartment was a sizable apartment, with several rooms and interesting features one of which was the fact that it could be connected to other trunk apartments if need be.

After saying that these were the trunks they wanted, they each paid Twenty Galleons, which surprised them, and made Hermione suspicious. Of course, finding out that the trunks were so unpopular – no wizard seemed to like having a trunk with it's own apartment was worth having – probably had to do with it's low price, they shrugged it off, turning to leave. They were then quickly told how to set the security, as well as the fact that it would only take a single tap with their wands upon the centerpiece carvings – the lion for Harry, a snow covered lamp post for Hermione – to shrink the trunks down and reverse the shrinking as well, so long as they remembered to say 'shrink' or 'enlarge' when they tapped the trunks.

Once they had their trunks shrunk and in their pockets, they left, heading straight down Knockturn Alley, where, at first, they were almost accosted by several of the Dark beings there, their obviously non-wizarding clothes making them prime targets for the pure-blood fanatics who often roamed the walkway, as well as those who rarely managed be able to kill as they wanted without problem knowing that they could get away with killing these two, as they weren't liked by the others. Without even stopping their stride, Harry and Hermione both felt Tryst's power building up within them, and, without thought, they brought their hands up, each of them placing their hands upon the faces of the people nearest to them. Twin startled screams were cut short of they sent that power through their palms, which, much like a gun, shot through the people's heads, making the back of their heads, as well as everything inside their skulls, spatter out against the walls, the people dropping dead with little thought.

Harry and Hermione both spared a glance at their victims while the rest of the Alley's patronage slid back into the shadows, fear premeading the air as the two obviously powerful people continued walking, no expression on their faces.

“ _Well, that was interesting,”_ Hermione said, not feeling an ounce of guilt over the wizard she'd just killed, as she knew she would have before. Of course, while she knew that it was because of Tryst, she had the feeling that she wouldn't have felt it anyways, at least, not heavily. She recognized the man she'd killed, a worthless death eater that should have been killed before, and yet had been left free to roam the streets because he hadn't been caught. She didn't know what his name was exactly, only that he worked in the Ministry, and his last name began with a 'Y'.

“ _Yes, it is very interesting, particularly how it caused everyone to pretty much run away from us, showing themselves to be the cowards that they truly are,”_ Harry answered back, his concern of killing the old witch, in the first time he'd been there, been carrying a tray of what looked like human fingers – which, as he found out several years later, they were, having been taken from non-magicals.

“ _I'm glad you find some of your new powers interesting,”_ Tryst said, dark amusement in her voice – as the Goddess of Death, she reveled within it, though not as much as when it was the death of one she truly longed to have join her in the other world. While she could effect them while they were living, them being dead were better, for she would be able to have all the time she wanted with them like that.

“ _Yeah, though I have to wonder what people are going to do in response to us doing this,”_

“ _Wait, I just thought of something_ ,” Hermione said suddenly, just barely managing to not falter in her steps.

“ _What is it?”_ Tryst asked, though Harry noted that her voice sounded as though she already knew what it was that Hermione was beginning to question.

“ _Well, it's just that, we're going to be killing witches and wizards. What's to stop them from coming back as ghosts? We can't do much good if they do that?”_ Hermione said.

“ _Those whom are killed by Reapers – by those in my service, and, therefore, on my orders basically – don't get the choice,”_ Tryst said. _“Much like you said, it wouldn't do much good to kill them only for them to be able to come back – though, since they couldn't participate in killing and torturing, the chances of them doing that are kind of slim – so, whenever I have Reapers, anyone killed by said Reapers are exempted from having such a choice.”_

“ _Well, that's good,”_ Harry said. _“Because, thinking about it, there's really nothing stopping them from spying on me and telling the alive DE idiots everything they find out if they could come back.”_

“ _Harry, you're given them too much credit. They most likely wouldn't even think of doing that_ ,” Hermione said.

“ _She's got a point,”_ Tryst said. _“If they came up with that idea, then they would realize that they could have elves do the same thing, and even bring you to them if need be. Which is why not even the alive ones would think of it. Ghosts are just another thing to ignore for most of them – remember how quite a few of your classmates tended to treat the ghosts at Hogwarts, as if they didn't exist or matter? That's because, to them, that's the truth. They don't matter. Of course, as you're soon going to find out, that's far from the truth.”_

Harry was interested in knowing exactly why that was, but Tryst pointed out that they'd arrived at the bookshop they were heading for, and he focused on what was to come, casually looking over at the store front. Much like the rest of the alley, it wasn't much to look at – dirty and grimy looking, the windows almost pitch black, faded and peeling lettering proclaiming the shop as _Respian's Books_ along the top of the main window, as well as the smaller one on the entrance door. Looking over at Hermione, he shared a look with her, before squaring his shoulders and walking to the door.

He didn't know what to expect when he entered the shop – perhaps, something that matched the outside, or what Burkes and Borgins had looked like. Whatever he expected, it wasn't what he got.

The inside was much like a shop you'd get in a more civil world – AKA, the Mundane one, as not even the shops on Diagon Alley were all that much different from the shops on Knockturn Alley, just slightly cleaner and without the Dark objects. It was spotlessly clean inside, the soft sent of lemon oil in the air. Gleaming solid oak bookcases covered the walls from floor to ceiling, several smaller ones set evenly out in the middle of the floor, with plenty of walking space between them. On the other end of the room, a desk stood, a magical cash register sat, behind which a curtain sat, cutting the front room from the back. Walking through that curtain at that moment was an unknown wizard who didn't look too startled to see them, as they would have expected, not having heard a bell anywhere when coming through the door.

They studied the older wizard, who had a very Dumbledore-esque beard and hair, though it being more dark colored, with silver streaked through it. He was also younger, having less wrinkles about his face than Dumbledore did. His eyes, dark, didn't seem to glitter with malice, nor did his demeanor, which seemed out of place considering where they were at. However, considering who led them here, he could see how it did make sense, since Tryst had already pretty much shown that she had no liking for most of the proprietors here on Knockturn Alley.

No words were spoken as the wizard simply set himself at the desk, going to a book that was on it, though Harry saw that he was glancing up at them every few seconds.

“ _Ignore him. He's simply there to make sure you don't attempt to take anything without paying for it, since he knows that calling any Auror's if there's a theft around here is worthless,”_ Tryst explained.

“ _What do you mean?”_ Hermione asked as she started looking around at the books along the walls, pulling out ones that looked interesting to her, while also grabbing ones that Tryst would tell her to grab. Harry followed after her, grabbing a few more books that looked interesting to him within each of the sections after Hermione had already cleared them of what she wanted and what Tryst wanted them to have.

“ _Consider where you are,”_ Trist said. _“Of everyone you just saw you kill those two people, over half of them would rather die themselves than admit they were here, considering that to be known to be here could backfire on them. Just because some of them were 'cleared' of any suspicious activity in the past doesn't mean that it'll always happen like that, and it only takes one thing to have them in trouble. That's why you won't have trouble with Auror's, because of everyone who saw you do what you did, two thirds of them won't admit they were here, and the other third aren't considered human enough for the ministry to bother with anything they say, which is why you can get away with murder on this alley. Only, be careful of just who you kill in front of people, because there are a few that the Ministry will come down here to avenge, if you will, mostly on the orders of the Minister – and I'm sure you can figure out who those ones are.”_

“ _Malfoy, for one,”_ Harry said.

“ _Parkinson, Smith, Umbitch,”_ Hermione continued, naming off the names of those she knew to be in tight with Fudge – as in, most of those who contributed to his funding party to become Minister in the first place, as well as those who did the same things year after year in order to have the best positions in society as well, the Malfoys having been particularly good at this, while also managing to keep from funding anything that could help Mundane-borns. Hermione and Harry had, after looking into it, noticed right away that while Mr. Malfoy had given donations to St. Mungo's and such, he had always done it for the one department there that was anti-mundane – as in, none of it's patients were ever non-magical, or even mundane-born.

“ _I don't think we're going to be able to carry all of these,”_ Hermione suddenly said, noticing that her arms were full as of the moment, though they still had quite a bit to go, due to the fact that they'd only covered a bit under half of the first wall of books. Luckily for her, the answer came in the form of a basket floating over to her. Slightly puzzled, she placed the books into the basket, taking it to hang on her arm instead, rather comfortably since it seemed to have been charmed to be weightless, as well as limitless. A second basket came to Harry's side at the same time.

“ _What...How...Where did these baskets come from?”_ Harry asked. _“I didn't see any when we came in.”_

“ _Respian – that's the wizard at the register – only has a limited amount of them to give out, and often has people who come in and do nothing but just walk out again, as well as some trouble makers who try to run off with them when he first had them by the door. Since they're not exactly the easiest baskets to make, and he can have too many going at a time, he keeps them with him at the register, floating them over whenever he sees someone who actually is serious about getting books,”_ Tryst explained.

“ _But all that's done to it is that it has a featherlight charm, as well as an expansion charm on it,”_ Hermione said.

“ _Wrong. While the baskets do have those two charms on them, they also have extensive runes for a specific charms that basically acts as both a scanner, transporter, and counter,”_ Tryst said, thoroughly confusing the two of them. Realizing this, she continued. _“What I mean is, rather than just having it be expanding and featherlight charms on them, they also have charms that not only scans the books, but actually sends them into a shopping bag – also charmed to be featherlight and expanding – where they stay unless you decide you don't want a book, in which case you just put your hand in and pulling it out. As for the scanning thing, that basically tells him what book you grabbed, and it's price, which is automatically counted up for each book you place in the basket. When you go up to pay, he'll simply tap the basket to close the transportation part of it, as well as add the tax for all of the books, and then give you how much you need to pay him.”_

“ _Wow, that actually makes shopping easier, since everything's done at once, and all that's left to do is pay. It's also a good thing that there's only one bag as well. Why isn't this done elsewhere?”_ Harry asked.

“ _Oh a few reasons. The first is that this method was invented outside of Britain, in Japan to be exact, and it tends to take decades, even centuries, for British wizards to acknowledge such spells, charms, rituals, anything that's not invented in Britain. In fact, more often than not, the only reason why some would even bother learning some spells is because a British wizard 'discovers' it themselves, thus gaining the credit for inventing it when he shows it to the Wizengamot – of course, if they try to do this outside of Britain, they get majorly laughed at, since the spells have been around for ages by then. It's only ever in Britain that they can call themselves the 'original' creator of a spell, since, even if it becomes known that they didn't actually create the spell first, as, concerning what the Wizengamot thinks, it was created by them, and those foreigners who say otherwise are lying._

“ _The second is cost. You not only have to buy the materials to do it, but if you're not good with runes or enchanting things, you need to pay for a person to do that, and most tend to charge an arm and leg for every single piece – not every order, but every little piece of an order – they need to enchant._

“ _And the final – and probably the most important for those in power here in Britain – is the fact that this method wasn't just thought up outside of the country, but by a Mundane-born as well. You may not have noticed, but no Mundane-born born has ever been granted anything of recognition here in Britain, no matter what it is. The only time a Mundane-born can get recognition is by getting it outside of Britain, in which case it tends to be ignored in Britain. The only thing that Britain can't ignore about the recognition is when someone gains a Mastery in the subject – or course, it's not just Mundane-born that have this problem, as quite a few half-bloods do as well, mostly those with parents of non-human descent. It's basically just a sign of just how much Mundane-born and half-breeds are disliked here,”_ Trist said.

“ _In fact, some good examples would be Filius Flitwick, Remus Lupin, and your mother, Lily Potter. All three of them had to get their individual Masteries in other countries, because Britain wouldn't consider giving them one, despite how much they had earned it. They simply, for Flitwick and your mother, wanted them to do the hard work while a pure-blood got the glory; both refused and left the country to pursue gaining their masteries.”_

“ _That's horrible,”_ Hermione said, as she continued to add books to her basket.

“ _That's Britain. But don't worry; that is a part of what you're to change,”_ Tryst said. _“At least, it going to be an effect of what you're going to be doing.”_

“ _Well, at least there's that,”_ Harry said. _“I do have another question, though: how is it that he can count both baskets? I mean, are they being counted together, or...”_

“ _They're being counted separately,”_ Tryst said. _“As for the how, the counter spell is kind of hooked up to what amounts to being a calculator that's also has a receipt maker attached. Each book and it's price are mentioned – by title – as it's inserted in the basket, which is then recorded on the receipt, which isn't 'printed' until you come up to the counter and pay.”_

“ _How does it know the titles of the books? Most of them don't seem to have one,”_ Hermione said, complaining a bit as she pulled out yet another titleless book, the black cloth bound cover bare of any writing, even on the spine. Most of the books were like this, bound in different colors, though a good number in black and red, which was why she'd asked her question.

“ _Magic, of course. Even though many of them look the same, there are slight differences upon them, as well as invisible ones that only the scan can pick up,”_ Tryst said. _“He also knows where everything is in here, along with being the one who priced everything, particularly since many of these books are actually very rare here in Britain – particularly those about the Dark Arts, and not just what the Ministry is aware of as well. Remember, Britain rarely looks outside of it's own community for much, so they don't even know half of the really Dark Arts there are – why do you think that Riddle left England to begin with? In fact, most of the 'Dark Arts' they've labeled as such actually are not that. And, for the most part, a good number of those 'Dark Arts' are that because the pure-bloods have trouble doing the spells.”_

“ _Because of the inbreeding, no doubt,”_ Hermione said.

“ _Indeed,”_ Tryst said,

“ _But how is it that so many of the pure-bloods in our year could do a lot of the spells, if they tend to have trouble because of it. I mean, how could Malfoy and his goons do any magic, if many of the 'Dark Arts' are because most couldn't?”_ Harry asked. _“And what about the Weasley's , who not only have seven kids, but seven kids that are pretty proficient in magic.”_

“ _Because, despite what they think, hardly any of them are actually pure-blood,”_ Tryst said. _“Oh, they say they are, but, in truth most of them are not. As for the Weasleys, well, they never really held to the pure-blood propoganda – until Molly came into the mix, anyway – and had no problem keeping fresh blood within the lines, It's actually only the last twenty-one generations that haven't done that outright, though it's mostly because they ended up falling for pure-bloods that weren't born in England rather than design, thus keeping a fresh of infusion of blood in the family. Arthur and Molly are the first of the family who married someone they could call distant family – their family's connect with Phineas Nigellus Black and his wife, Ursula Black nee Flint. Molly is the most distant one to them – Phineas and Ursula are her great-great grandparents, while they're just Arthur's great grandparents._

“ _As for the others, many of them had ancestors who chose to lie about their bloodlines, able to fake it quite well, especially for those who came from outside of England. Also, for some, the wives actually had affairs with other men, or their men couldn't get them pregnant – many of the pure-blood males are sterile because of their 'blood purity'. And more than one of the women were desperate to have children, through any means necessary.”_

“ _Well, that's interesting to know,”_ Hermione said as continued with their shopping. By the time they finally finished, most of the gold they'd brought with them was spent, and, when they went up to the counter, it was to be given a discount for buying so many books, bringing the total down by two hundred fifty Galleons for Hermione – who ended up with the bulk of the books gotten, being that, as she ended up going through the shelves first, Tryst had ended up telling her all the books to get that she wanted them to have – and one hundred for Harry, who had also gotten his fair share of books, though no where near as many as Hermione had.

Leaving with their one bag each, they headed to the next shop, still on Knockturn Alley, which was just a bit further down from _Respian's_. Coming to a stop in front of a non-descript shop, they wasted no time entering, coming out barely ten minutes later, each with another bag.

“ _I think we should do one more thing before we leave,”_ Harry suddenly said as they began walking out of the alley. A shop had caught his eye, and Hermione, realizing this, saw that it was _Burkes and Borgins_. She looked over to him.

“ _Vanishing cabinet?”_ she said, and he nodded.

“ _Will it be alright for us to do this?”_ he asked Tryst.

“ _Of course. While you're in there, you can also grab the Hand of Glory, as well as the necklace,”_ she said. _“While what happened with Malfoy Junior doesn't happen for another six years, and might not end up happening this time around, it's better to make sure all bases are covered. Besides, you can use the vanishing cabinets yourself as well – you just have to remember to get the one at Hogwarts so that you can set them up how you want or how we'll need them to be.”_

“ _One problem, though: neither of the two proprietors are going to want to give us any of the items for free, we don't have enough on us for one of the items, much less all three, and I don't think they'd sell them to us because we're obviously not pure-bloods,”_ Hermione said.

“ _You do have something to offer them, though: their lives. If they try to resist, kill them. It's not as though they're of any importance, after all, and since they happily supply death eaters and their supporters without problem, as well as have murdered in the past, they are among those whom, while are not high priority for being killed, are in the can be killed, especially if it's unavoidable, section of the list,”_ Tryst said, and Hermione rolled her eyes at the answer.

“ _Strangely, I'm okay with doing that,”_ Harry said. Because of their actions, the two had been the cause of several attempted murders and actual murders, if one looked at the fact that Merope Gaunt could have been able to survive longer after giving birth if she'd had been able to take care of herself better. Harry couldn't help but hold them partially responsible for Riddle as well, though he was smart enough to realize, after thinking about the one memory that Dumbledore showed, that Riddle would have been a murderer no matter what – he was a sociopath, what he did was done because he didn't feel anything for the victims, and got off on torturing them.

“ _Okay,”_ Hermione said, sighing as she realized that she wasn't going to win – not that she really cared, either way. Again, it seemed that becoming a Reaper and thus not having the guilty conscious that had haunted them before, meant that she didn't think it wrong to kill them. It was feeling that, when she really thought about it, kind of scared her, for she felt as though she and Harry would both get used to it, a little too used to it.

“ _I do have one other thing to say, though,”_ Hermione said. _“With how easy we're getting used to killing and not caring, I'm a little worried.”_

“ _Don't worry, your guilt isn't going to be completely absent for everything. While you will be killing quite a few people, I am not going to be giving you an all out 'free-for-all' with killing, either. While you two are powerful – you the more powerful, Hermione, seeing the female magicals tend to be that way in general – when it comes to killing, I've been giving you quite a power boost, which is how you could do the wandless magic earlier. However, outside of the kills I have you do, or, like the two you may end up having to kill, I say okay to you killing them, that boost will not be there, and you will have to rely on your own power,”_ Tryst said.

“ _Which means, anyone who dies that isn't done by your orders will most likely be because of self defense, and they will most likely have deserved it because we wouldn't have been aiming to kill them if we could avoid it,”_ Hermione said.

“ _Exactly,”_ Tryst said. _“Though I doubt you'd really kill them. Paralyze them or seriously injure them, yes, but kill them, not very likely.”_

Harry and Hermione walked through the doors of Burkes and Borgins then, and almost immediately, were forced to be on the offensive, for, just as Hermione had noted, neither of the proprietors were willing to even consider bargaining with them, mostly because their clothes stated quite clearly that they weren't pure-blood idiots. The practical screams of 'get out, Mudbloods' from the two, as well as the clear dark curses being sent their way – with only the Unforgivables not being used – showed that they wouldn't really have any other choice. The power that Tryst seemed to fill into them told them that as well, and, not bothering to even dodge anymore, Hermione watched with slight amusement as one of the curses hit her, seeing the the triumphant look on Borgin's face turn to bewilderment and then fear when he saw that nothing had happened.

With a brittle smile, Hermione moved her hand out as though she was about to slap someone. All at once, Borgin when flying away from her, hitting the wall hard enough to daze him. With a single move, before he could recover, Hermione made a twisting motion with her hand, and, almost at once, Borgin went up in flames, which only lasted a few moments before nothing of him was left.

Burke, however, ended up distracted by Hermione's wandless magic act, eyes wide upon seeing someone who was supposed to be a worthless, weak mudblood perform a feat of magic very few pure-bloods could. His distraction cost him his life when Harry flung him towards a wall as well, only this wall had a spike protruding from it, which he hit squarely in the face.

“Well,” Hermione murmured, deciding to speak out loud for once as she looked at Harry's kill. “I don't think we were quite expecting that to happen.”

“I wasn't,” Harry muttered, before deciding to get down to business. Pulling out his trunk, he resized it before going and levitating the cabinet into the apartment, as well as the necklace and Hand of Glory. After that, he looked around.

“ _Is there anything else we should grab, or can we just destroy the shop in general?”_ he asked. He really didn't think it was a good idea to just leave the shop as it was for someone else to take over, but at the same time, he had the feeling that, while murdering straight up would be ignored, property damage wouldn't. Still, considering what was in the shop, he figured those who were truly on the side of good and justice being done would only hunt because of that, and not because of the fact that the store full of dark objects.

“ _Go ahead,”_ Tryst said, and, after shrinking his trunk again, _“There's really nothing here worth getting besides the few things I already had you get, so burn it down. No one will be able to trace it back to you, and the case will go cold rather quickly, particularly since those who would investigate to have justice done are a minor factor. And the few who will want you found can't do anything to help have you found, as they can't be seen as being associated with the store._

“ _Plus, it won't take much for people to realized that the store owners just happened to get something they should have been more careful with – I can tell you right now that there are a few volatile items in the back of the shop that, when you do your spell, will help cover your tracks. Add in the fact that there won't be any bodies left after the attack, and the only thing that will survive are a few documents that will not only point out that they had the volatile items in their custody, but that they'd bought questionable items from quite a few people that are going to have to cover their asses when it's discovered,”_ Tryst said.

“ _Well, I don't think we'll need anything else here, so lets get this done and over with,”_ Hermione said.

“ _Agreed_ ,” Harry said, and together, the two of them sent out a powerful fire spell before disapparating from there just moments before it truly blew up.

* * *

 

_August 2 nd, 1991_

Harry awoke early the next day, the _Daily Prophet_ owl having arrived. He quickly paid the bird before looking at the paper, discovering the news about the store blowing up towards the end of the newspaper, in a section he knew people rarely read. He smirked as he read about the mysterious fire that happened on Knockturn Alley, noting that they'd already proclamed the cause as being mishandling of volatile items. The fact that both shop propietors had been burnt to ashes wasn't even mentioned, though they did appear on the eulogy page of the newspaper.

Once he'd finished reading, he opened his trunk apartment, going down to explore it properly now that he had the time. Hitting the bottom of the ladder leading down, he turned, walked forward a few more steps until he reached the apartment door, and opened it, his mouth dropping in surprise, for it wasn't quite what he'd been expecting. He had expected an apartment that looked kind of cheap, just holding the doors that had been mentioned, as well as a bathroom, and that was it. What he was faced with, however, was definitely more extravegant than that.

The first room was a large living room-slash-lounge area, already decked out with comfortable seats. Walking into the middle of the room, he saw a small hallway that led to the kitchen/dining area, a single counter being all the separated the two. A door was also there, in the dining area, which led, upon him opening, to indoor pool and spa area, which left him with wide eyes as she shut the door. Windows charmed with fake scenery dotted the walls, a tower styled corner window with window seat in the corner of the dining area letting in the most of the charmed sunlight.

Heading back into the living area, he went down another hallway, a longer one, stopping when he came to the first room. His eyes were wide upon realizing that the first room was a big, walk-in version of the first compartment of his trunk, his school supply compartment. It was empty at the moment, due to the fact that all of his things hadn't been put into it yet. He could tell, though, that it would be easy to organize, shelving providing a place for everything. In fact, the shelves reminded him of the individual compartments that separated that compartment to begin with, making it even easier to organize.

Stepping out of the room, he walked to the next door, opening it to see that it was a potion's lab, empty but ready for use. The third room was locked, holding a strange plaque next to it, a series of dials with ruins carved into them upon it, as well as a carving of runes underneath it. It took him a few moments of wondering what this room was, until he realized that it was the door the connected his apartment to others. The carved runes were his apartment's address, for lack of better term, while the dials were where he input another trunk apartment's address in, so that they could connect. Once he realized this, he walked away, mentally making a note to find out what Hermione's 'address' was so that he could input it at some point.

He continued his exploring. The fourth room turned out to be a ready to use greenhouse, the fifth an empty library-slash-study. The sixth, seventh, and eighth were guest bedrooms; the nineth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth were bathrooms. Finally, the thirteenth room, the last one, took him into a master bedroom with connecting master bathroom, a door which connected to his wardrobe compartment resting against the wall next to a set of doors leading out onto an enclosed balcony.

After exploring the place, he went back to the living area, through a different entrance to the hallway, which was right next to the master bedroom door, wondering how in hell he'd managed to get an apartment trunk that was this extravagant for as cheap as he'd paid for it. There had to be something off with it, though his initial walk through hadn't shown anything off. He supposed that he would have to wait a bit to see if something actually was off. In the meantime, however, he supposed that he should decorate the place, and then wondered just how he was going to do that.

It was at this point that he decided to ask Hermione if she had any ideas on how to decorate the place, as he'd never decorated his own place before; he also wondered if her apartment was as extravegant as his was.

Unfortunately for him, when he sent her a thought, she mentioned that she was spending time with her parents for the moment, and he knew that he would have to wait until she was free. After all, Tryst had told her to spend as much time with them as possible before the summer was over. And, since he couldn't ask Hermione for help, he wasn't sure of what to do, especially when he was now wondering what to do with his own family. That hadn't actually come up in their discussion, after all. That said, he supposed that he could inquire about it.

“ _You know, I would have supposed that you would have just left them the first minute that you could do so,”_ Tryst suddenly said to him, causing him to jump slightly, as he wasn't really expecting her to speak.

“ _Well, nothing was said, and I didn't know if leaving would alert Dumbledore to the fact that something was up or not,”_ he told her.

“ _Good reasoning. I supposed that I should have said something, and not assumed you would just leave_ ,” Tryst said. _“You can, by the way. In fact, if I were you, I would, using your new persona, find a place for you and Hermione to live, in the Muggle area of England, where you can go when you're not in school. Dumbledore won't be a problem; I've already changed it so that, as far as he's concerned, you are still with them here in number four, even if they no longer live here. They will have what they always wanted – invisibility from the magical world once your not here. And, just so you know, with what they've done to you, and the fact that they never repented for their actions, just benefited from them, they will regret those actions, and not just because you've decided to have them repossess the monies that should have been used on you and not them.”_

“ _Good_ ,” Harry said, and he really did mean it. Though his cousin had started to become a better person after the events of the summer before his fifth year, that had only been by chance, since they'd been attack by Dementors due to Umbitch. Since Harry was hoping to deal with her sooner, as well as not causing the event that had cause a lot of what happened that very year, the chances of Dudley changing without another major change happening were very slim. And, since they were going to chance it, it made sense that something needed to happen of Dudley had any hope of not becoming like his parents. When he changed, he had stopped all contact with all of them, because none of the others were willing to change with him.

And so Harry hoped that whatever consequences him reclaiming money they hadn't even deserved to have gotten because they hadn't actually taken care of him, it would have the effect of making Dudley a better person.

“ _Anywhere specific I should go_ ,” Harry asked as he crawled out of his trunk apartment, closing it, and then using magic to put all of his bags within the school compartment, as well as anything else he wanted – which wasn't much, just some clothes for him to use now. He'd deal with replacing them later, for he didn't trust himself in doing that task, either.

“ _Well, honestly, I really don't care. So long as it's not Hogwarts, or near by, you will be fine. You don't even need to stay in England. Just so long as you come back ffor school and such, you can go anywhere you want. My only advice is to not use any of the houses you just inherited, at least, not yet, and especially don't use any of the Potter residence. While Dumbledore couldn't use any of them, he could go to them to 'maintain them', and did put some spells on them to know it you go there at any point. So, until you can get rid of his things so that he can't know, they're not safe to use. As for the others, well, many have fallen into disrepair, so you'll need to hire a team of elves to go to them and fix them before you do that. If I were you, I'd just go and get yourself a place to live, in the non-magical world,”_ Tryst said. _“Not as easy to track you that way, after all, since Dumbledore's tracking charms are completely gone from you.”_

_Does he realize this?”_ Harry asked, shrinking his trunk down once he had everything within it.

“ _Of course not,”_ Tryst said. _“He's so far up his own ass that he won't even check, because he expects everything to go the way he wants it to, and can't ever think of you actually not following his script. So long as you don't put your name down to leave the castle during any of the holidays, he won't even realize that you've changed the script until it's far too late. He'll be dead by the time that comes to be.”_

“ _Will Hermione or I have to be the ones to cause this?”_ Harry asked, sounding a little wary over the idea. Though having his mind opened to just how Dumbledore was indeed corrupted, there was still a part of him that was still for the man, a part that would need in your face evidence of Dumbledore unsuitability, and that part had him uncomfortable with the idea of being the one to take his life. And, while he wasn't completely positive for Hermione, he had the feeling that she might be feeling the same that he was, probably even more because of her absolute respect for those she saw as authority figures.

“ _Nope,”_ Tryst said. _“No, we'll let him plan his death the way that he did before. The only difference will be, instead of immortalizing him, it can be turned around to show that he had indeed become a bumbling fool who had started to believe his legend a little too much, and didn't think to take precations when looking for something that he knew, before going to look for it, was a dark object and most likely would have dangerous curses attached to it. It won't be a quick thing, but, as it becomes known that you don't really follow him, that will get others not to follow his every word.”_

“ _I think that I like that idea quite a bit,”_ Harry thought, before sighing. He just really didn't know what to do at the moment. Before, in the previous time line, having the days without the Dursleys to himself, he had done several things that he hadn't been able to do before, like playing on Dudley's computer, and watching television. He had enjoyed the fact that he'd been able to do that without them around, but there was no novelty in doing that this time around, seeing as most of his enjoyment that time had come from doing something he'd never done without permission.

There was no drive to do that now, though. Perhaps it was the fact that he'd become rather far removed from the Muggle world that it held no interest to him; maybe it was because he was just anxious to get out of the house and never see the Dursleys again. Whatever it was, it was leaving him severely bored.

“ _If you're that bored, Harry, why don't you find yourself a place to live, that isn't the trunk?”_ he suddenly heard come at him from Hermione. _“After all, you really don't need to stay there. Even Tryst has commented upon it.”_

“ _I know, but I really don't quite know exactly how to go about it,”_ he admitted. _“It's not like I've ever bought myself a place to live before, after all, and definitely not in the mundane world.”_

“ _True, and it's probably not a good idea to look for a place to live at in the wizarding world, either,”_ Hermione said.

“ _So you see why I'm not doing that. Besides, whose going to give a place to someone who won't be there a whole lot, if at all, save for right now,”_ Harry said.

“ _Oh, you would be surprised,”_ Tryst suddenly said. _“Truthfully, you can get a place to stay and not stay there a whole lot. So long as you pay your bills and are never late doing so, no ones going to really care. That's if, of course, you get an apartment. In fact, I would suggest that is what you go for; a two bedroom two bathroom apartment, somewhere between King's Cross Station and Diagon Alley. It shouldn't be too hard to find an apartment in that area, and definitely shouldn't be too hard to have one with at least two bedrooms. The bathrooms might be a problem, but if you need to, simply look for an apartment with more bedrooms. Just summon listings of places for rent in that area, mark what places look good, and call the real estate numbers that are with them to schedule time to go look._

“ _You can get this done within the next few days, in fact. I doubt that you'll have to wait long to be able to see the apartments.”_

“ _Well, then that could mean that I'll be able to be out of here before the Dursley's get back,”_ Harry said, a note of happiness in his voice.

“ _Exactly_ ,” Tryst said.

With something to do now, Harry quickly went and summoned the listing as he'd been told to, finding what he was looking for without trouble. As he was looking through the list, a thought occurred to him.

“ _Why do I need a two bedroom apartment?”_ he asked.

“ _Well, for Hermione, of course,”_ Tryst said.

“ _Yeah, remember, this is going to be the last time I'm going to be seeing my parents for quite a while,”_ Hermione reminded him. _“And this way, you're not going to be alone during the holidays. Plus, we can speak out loud without a problem,which we ought to do every now and then, otherwise we'll get so used to speaking in our minds that we'll forget other people in the world, which would not be good. After all, I have the feeling that Helena would be most unhappy with us if we didn't do that.”_

“ _You are right about that, she definitely won't be,”_ Tryst confirmed.

“ _Right,”_ Harry said, feeling a bit foolish for having forgotten about that. He also felt a little sad about the fact that Hermione wouldn't be able to see her parents for who knew how long. Of course, considering that she wasn't all that close to them to begin with in their time, he had the feeling that she wouldn't find it too hard to leave them this time around as well. Even before she'd known she was a witch, she had been kind of distant from them. Not to say that she didn't love them, but they weren't so close that Hermione was super heart broken over having to say good-bye. Even in the previous line, when she had erased their memory, her sadness over having to do that was because she knew that it was expected of her, not because she was actually really sad, as horrible as that fact was.

In the previous time, when Ron had first hear about what she did, he had been so appalled that she had been like that, that she had quickly acted as if it had bothered her, and she was just showing a strong face concerning it. Of course, she now wondered if he had actually been appalled over it, or if he was appalled over the fact that she was denying him a chance to comfort her and appear better than he actually was, for she had found tout about the book that Ron had received from the twins for his birthday – a good book for the right male who actually was interested in finding someone, but not for Ron, who had seen it as a way to have females eating out of his hand. Hermione was appalled when she discovered that he had used some of the moves in it on her, even more so considering that she had sort of fallen for them, though after learning what they'd learned from Helena, she had to wonder if she actually would have fallen for it if she had been in her right mind, and not on those potions.

“ _I'll be joining you about a week before school starts, because I think we ought to talk and plan how we're going to act, seeing as we're going to have to make sure we don't act too suspiciously, and, honestly, neither of us are good at pretending all that well,”_ Hermione said.

“ _That is true,”_ Tryst said, and it was something that even Harry had to agree with as well.

“ _Plus, we never got around to showing each other about the results of our heritage tests,”_ Hermione added. _“And, while I don't know about you, I've got pretty interesting lines.”_

“ _Well, looks like I've got something to do, then,”_ Harry said, immediately setting out to do just that – after all, considering that he'd been complaining about being bored, it would be kind of stupid of him if he didn't take advantage of doing this, since it would help alieve him of his boredom, and could also mean that he would be able to be gone from the Dursley house soon rather than later; he could just imagine both their relieved and then dismayed faces upon learning that he had not only left, but had also renounced the place as him home – he fully intended of reminding his aunt about the fact that this meant any protection they had would be gone as well, as Dumbledore had tied it to him believing that Number Four was his home, a fact which had actually never been true, though he'd never said it out loud. Still, considering that words had more power than thoughts in certain circumstances, it made sense that him verbally renouncing number four would have been needed to break the wards before, which he had actually never done.

He wouldn't really renounce the place as his house – he wasn't that cruel. Though, truthfully, a part of the reason why he also wouldn't do this was so that they weren't killed before he'd gotten his revenge on them – he was vengeful enough for the way they treated him before to be willing to get some interesting pranks in on them. And, if they tried to move, well, he would make sure he knew where they were in that case – a simple tracking spell on items he knew they'd never go anywhere without would be enough to do that.

Of course, he didn't actually know if the wards were tied to him or not, but he knew that it would freak them out if they believed any wizard could come and bother/harm them, which would actually be the whole point of him telling this to them. As for Dumbledore, well, he already planned to place any charms that might be on him – he actually hadn't checked – somewhere in the house on a point that would never leave it, so it was doubtful that Dumbledore would ever think his plans had become irrevocably changed. After all, with how Dumbledore was, his overconfidence would keep it so that he would never actually bother to even think that anything could have changed. That said, Harry didn't want to risk being wrong about Dumbledore, and being found out because he'd ended up falling for the same trap that Dumbledore seemed to have fallen for, in being so overconfident about his abilities that he didn't believe anything could go wrong with his plans.

“ _That's definitely a good attitude to have,”_ Tryst told him. _“And good plan. If I were you, I would look into one of the books you got at Respian's. One of them will actually be able to help you out pretty well.”_

“ _I'll get onto that after I find a place,”_ Harry replied back. He was, however, a bit worried about it, considering that he wasn't all that great with research.

“ _It shouldn't take you all that long. You should be able to get all of it done by the end of tomorrow,”_ Tryst told him. _“And don't sell yourself short. If you put your mind to it, you'll be fine. Remember, it's because of Ronald that you stopped liking books, because he didn't. You still did like them, you just never wanted to show it. And you were pretty good at researching when you had a specific topic to look up. All you'll have to do is look up revealing charms, switching charms, and hiding wards, all of which will be found in the one book I already told you to look for.”_

_'Hiding wards?”_ Harry asked.

“ _Well, it'll just make it so that if Dumbledore happens to look at his instruments, it doesn't show the discrepency when you're at the school. It wouldn't do for him to realize that something is wrong because he ended up doing that,”_ Tryst said.

“ _True,”_ Harry said. _“Very true.”_

* * *

_August 3 rd, 1991_

As Tryst had predicted, it hadn't taken him long to find an apartment that met what the standards that they were looking for. The three bedroom, two bathroom was right in the area he was told to look, and definitely one of the higher up apartments in the area, from the main security to it's look in general. The dark blue walls with crème accents and dark wood floors through most of the apartment looked good – in his opinion – while the multi-shaded blue tile floors in the bathrooms seemed fine with the crème walls as well.

The moment he entered the apartment, he could just see which room would be perfect for him, and which one would be good for Hermione. The kitchen was equipped with many modern appliances, and he saw that it would be easy to ward the doors and windows without anyone who wasn't supposed to notice the wards themselves.

More than that, though, was the fact that Tryst had been right about him. As he started reading the books he'd gotten, he'd found himself actually interested in what he'd been reading, actually taking it in, and he easily made it through several books before he found the one that Tryst had mentioned. He found all of the charms and wards in the book not only interesting, but, for what he needed, easy to do as well. In fact, it was almost insulting how easy for him it was to do the hiding ward, which pretty much consisted of him setting the time of when the ward was to activate and when it was to end, along with how many times it was to repeat. And the switching charm, as well as the location charm, were preformed with ease as well.

As Harry had suspected, he had a few tracking charms on him, which the easy to do revealing charm showed to be on his actual person – his scar, back, and legs – which he then moved around to different points in the house, such as his room and the kitchen, with one outside. The hiding wards, being easy to do, made it so that he could have it switch which tracking charm Dumbledore had put on him would show at which time during summer, for he knew that it would be better if it looked as though he was in different parts of the house as opposed to just his room.

Having already signed for the one apartment, Harry simple spent a bit of time doing the charms to keep him invisible to Dumbledore before placing the letter he'd written to the Dursleys – in which he not only mentioned the lack of protection they would have, but the fact that he would be making sure that, if they were paid anything for 'taking care of him' from his vault, they'd have to repay the money back to him, with interest, and that he was glad to be rid of such abnormal people - on the kitchen table. Then, using the transportation ability gotten from Tryst as it was the only magical one he liked, he headed to his and Hermione's new apartment. Upon entering it once again, he went straight to the room he'd already decided would be his, being that it had an awesome view of the city through the large windows, which, in all honesty, he knew that Hermione wouldn't really care for, considering that she wasn't one for heights.

Smiling as he pulled out his trunk from his pocket and unshrunk it, he placed it in the corner of the room, then, grabbing the furniture magazine that Tryst had suggested he get, he began going through it, looking for things for his bedroom, such as a bed, dresser, maybe a side table and book shelf for his new bedroom. Having the time to set it up how he wanted it – especially with Hermione not coming for quite awhile – another three weeks, at the very least, unless something came up.

So, having the time to do all of this, he decided to take it slow, look through what options he had, a process he'd never really had an option to do before.

The freedom felt kind of exillarating for him, a fact that had him going even slower than he probably needed to when looking through it. In fact, truthfully, about the only thing he looked at the first part of that day – after arriving at the apartment and picking his room – was a bed, which was also the only thing he looked at as quick as possible, seeing as he would need it for the night, unless, of course, he chose to sleep in the trunk apartment again, which he didn't want to do. The idea of spending the night in a room of his own choosing that was sort of out in the open was definitely more appealing than the trunk apartment.

Once he found a bed that he like – which appeared to be a lot like his bed at Hogwarts in frame at least – he did a quick check from one of the books that he'd gotten, having run into a spell, back when he was looking for the specific charms before leaving the Dursleys' house, that would help him be able to transport the bed that very day without the non-magicals noticing it and having to wait for it to be delivered. It was simple charm, a bit like a repelling charm, only it made non-magicals not question when magic was done, even if it was right in front of them, while also making it so that any paperwork didn't have discrepency to them; a matter that most magicals never bothered to even think about, but then, considering their attitude, it did make sense. After all, every wizard Harry ever met were rather incompetent people who not only only cared about themselves and their own families (among the more generous ones) but could care less about non-magicals in general. If something was off with memory and paperwork, they didn't care.

Still, whoever created the spell that Harry was going to use, they, at least, weren't like that. It simply meant that they were going to ignore the improbabilities of the sale that was going to happen. If they were to look at their records of it, it would say that the sale itself took place a different day, while the deliver would take place this exact day.

Walking to the store after casting the spell – it would automatically begin working the moment money was exchanged – he quickly bought his bed frame, and then spend at least an hour checking out mattresses to find the most comfortable one he wanted. He eventually chose a semi firm one that did make him sink down into it, but also didn't feel like laying down on a brick. Shrinking it and the box carrying the frame to be able to carry it within his pocket, he handed the right amount of banknotes to the cashier, and headed out the door with his package, looking at his receipt, where he saw the date change to a few days beforehand.

Upon pulling out the frame, Harry froze for a second upon realizing that he had no idea how to built it, only to remember that he could use magic to built it. After that little blunder, he put the bed near the closet in the room, built it, and then pulled out one of the books he'd grabbed himself on warding, making himself comfortable on the bed before opening the book to read. He was hoping to find something he could put around the apartment for protection, wanting to make sure that it was as protected as possible, especially from Dumbledore and Voldemort. It wouldn't do for either of them to find him and Hermione. Voldemort, while not effective at the moment in his wraith form, could still use someone or something else to attack him, as proven in Harry's first year, when he'd combined with Quirrell and tried to use him to kill Harry. Dumbledore, on the other hand, wouldn't like learning that they had their own plans of what to do, or that they couldn't tell him everything. Dumbledore was just too much of a control freak to be willing to deal with them knowing things he doesn't and having their own plans – he'd most likely memory charm them if that became the case, or convince everyone that they were evil, whichever would serve his purpose the best.

Harry was well aware that his thoughts about Dumbledore were no longer full of hero-worship, but then, after thinking about Tryst's words about him, and thinking about some other instances in which he should have questioned to begin with when they were happening, he realized that Tryst was right about Dumbledore. The man, for all his words, was just a bit too obsessed with power, and control. Just look at the way he'd hold information to himself, until it either became worth letting the information out – usually when it was too late to really do anything about it, or when there wasn't time to truly think about the information, but just do what conclusion he'd derived from it. Or, as Harry had found out, when he wasn't willing to play Dumbledore's little game, as he hadn't been right after Sirius had died. Remembering just what he'd said and what his attitude had been, upon thinking about it, he realized that Dumbledore had only told him what he had because of the fact that Harry had pretty much said he wasn't going to do what Dumbledore wanted him to do.

If the prophecy hadn't been told to him at the time it had, and, thus, distracted him from how he was feeling, he would have never continued to play Dumbledore's game – in fact, now that he thought about it, he would have most likely begun to dislike Dumbledore due to the fact that he'd done nothing to help free Sirius, and had, in fact, made it worse by forcing him to stay at Grimmauld Place, instead of bothering to find some other place to put him. Harry knew that there could have been another place to put Sirius that would have been safe and not full of bad memories – which, as the thought now ran through his head, he wondered if Dumbledore had trapped Sirius in that house on purpose, just so that Sirius would be desperate to get out of it and do something stupid.

After all, he hadn't forced Snape from saying anything bad to Sirius – of course, considering his inaction concerning Snape, it's not that surprising. When it came to Snape's actions, Dumbledore turned a blind eye to them, seeming to think that just because he wanted to save Lily Potter, Harry's mother, it meant that he could do no wrong, despite the fact that it was clear that Snape hadn't actually really cared for Lily as much as Dumbledore seemed to think – after all, it was clear what it was that Snape had planned on doing had his mother survived. Or, at least, he had an idea of just what it was that Snape had been thinking, and he doubted that it was innocent. After all, considering that they weren't on friendly basis at the time, Harry really doubted that his mother would have gone off towards Snape's arms willingly.

Harry's hangs squeezed the book's cover as the thought went through his mind, before he banished the thought from his mind. Snape wasn't worth thinking about at the moment – Snape would get what he was due all in good time. Truthfully, Harry had the feeling that he might not have to do much, either – It wouldn't surprise him one bit if Hermione was the one who did something this time around, considering that she was the one who had talked him out of forgiving Snape for his actions after Harry had told her about the memories that he'd seen.

After all, she had been disillusioned by Snape upon him killing Dumbledore, and then, when she really began to think about it and his actions during their school years, she realize that she'd wasted a lot of her time defending his unprofessional actions during school, especially when one considered that she had no problem treating Trelawney with disrespect, especially after that professor had insulted her in the first lesson. And yet, considering that Snape had done that throughout their schooling career, from getting on her case for being good at her work to making fun of her in class, in front of the other students as well – and that wasn't counting what he'd done to Harry or any of the other Gryffindors... How she could ignore such an unprofessional attitude in him when she had been so horrid to Trelawney for simply disrespecting her in one class, after she had disagreed with her... Well, Harry knew that, after realizing this, Hermione was gong to want to get revenge on Snape.

“ _Damn right I am,”_ Harry suddenly heard in his mind, causing him to jump, for he'd gotten kind of used to not speaking with anyone mentally in the last few hours – he'd also forgotten not to broadcast his thoughts as well, which was what he was doing while thinking about Snape.

“ _Sorry, didn't think about hiding my thoughts,”_ Harry told her. _“Which is a bit strange, really, considering that I also wasn't actually talking towards you or Tryst.”_

“ _Perhaps it was because you thought of me while thinking,”_ Hermione said. _“I was also listening for you too, though, so it could be that.”_

“ _It was a combination of both,”_ Tryst said. “ _While, for both of you, you can think about each other without thoughts being interrupted, if one of you thinks about the other while the other is listening for them, then you'll be able to hear them. But you both have to be doing that. If one of you is listening for the other, but the other doesn't think about you, then you won't hear their thoughts, and if one of you is thinking about the other but they are not listening, then you won't hear their thoughts. Truthfully, though, you kind of did broadcast your thoughts there, Harry, when you thought about Hermione doing something to Snape.”_

“ _Oh,”_ Harry said.

“ _And you are right,”_ Hermione told him. _“I will be taking care of him – and I won't be nice about it, either, though I won't be killing him. No, that would be too easy, and, knowing our luck, he'd decide to come back as a ghost.”_

“ _Very true,”_ Harry said.

“ _That's assuming I would let him,”_ Tryst pointed out. _“Though, honestly, with him, I am a bit iffy. While he did do a bit of bad with following Voldemort's orders, on the other hand, the information he often gave to Dumbledore was really good – it only proved useless because of Dumbledore's inability to do what was needed with it. And, while he was the who gave Voldemort the prophecy, considering that it was a trap, that can't really be put against him, either.”_

“ _You should judge him based on his actions to the students through his years as a professor, as well as how he acts towards others whom he did not get along with in school,”_ Harry suggested, despite knowing that his suggests wouldn't show Snape in a favorable light. _“His actions then show him in his true light. Plus, while the information given to Dumbledore was good, was it that ways for both parts of his term as a spy, or was it just the first part of the war.”_

Tryst went silent at that, clearly thinking about it, before she spoke once again.

“ _You have just given me what I need to make my choice,”_ she stated, and then it all went quiet once again, signaling that the conversation was now over.

Harry shrugged upon that, going back to the book in his hands, having gotten a bit off topic of what it was that he was supposed to be doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **  
> _The next chapter will skip forward to a few days later, where the next important event will come into play._  
>  **


End file.
